


Season One

by RosalindHawkins



Series: Rock Bottom [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Genre: Anger, Angst, Angstshipping - Freeform, Arrogantshipping, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Best Friends, Brotherhood, Brotherly Affection, Card Games, Duel Monsters, Duelist Kingdom, Duelling, F/M, Family, First Dates, First Kiss, Fluff, Friendship, Hamilton References, Haptephobia, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping, M/M, Mastershipping - Freeform, Mild Language, Mild Smut, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Sexual Abuse, Past Sexual Assault, Psychological Trauma, Smut, Souls, Spirits, Teen Angst, Tournaments, Trauma, Trust, Trust Issues, Wintershipping - Freeform, Yugioh has taken over my life, puppyshipping - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-28
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-07-27 07:43:44
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 22
Words: 63,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7609621
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosalindHawkins/pseuds/RosalindHawkins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Seto and Mokuba still lived with their father? What if Joey's parents never got divorced? What if Ryou's mother and sister hadn't died? What if Noah Kaiba hadn't been hit by a car? What if Marik never killed his father? What if Priest Seth's soul had been sealed away in the Millennium Rod?</p><p>A total rewrite of canon events based on these premises, focused on character psychology and gritty alternatives to the clean dubbed anime. Season One includes the Duelist Kingdom Tournament and the introduction of the Duel Disk.</p><p>Reviews are appreciated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Date

**Season One: Did anybody see where I left my star chips?**

* * *

"I'll be taking a couple days off for personal leave next week," Duke said suddenly as he and Seto put the finishing touches on what they'd been working on. For Seto, that meant proofing just a few more lines of code, just a few more, and _then_ he'd be done. Or not. He liked his work, and tended to have a hard time stopping. Besides, a little overtime never killed anybody, right? Meanwhile, Duke was putting away the extra pieces lying on his worktable and hanging up his tools. They were working on what had been named "Duel Disks" by someone higher up in the corporate bureaucracy from the department of product development. They were just prototypes, but they were functional so far.

"If all goes well," Duke continued, "I'll be putting in my two weeks' notice when I get back."

"Really?" Seto asked, looking up at his partner in surprise. He'd thought that their partnership was going well, really well. He couldn't think of there being someone more agreeable or better suited to work with, which made him feel a bit disappointed. He looked back at the computer screen, trying to sort through the strange tangle of feelings in the pit of his stomach.

 _It's okay to just say that you'll miss him because he's your friend,_ Seth advised, speaking directly into Seto's mind and disrupting his train of thought.

"Yeah. It has nothing to do with you," Duke assured, not wanting Seto to think that he was the cause for Duke's departure. "I just don't want to keep working at a place this corrupt, where people's rights to their own inventions are extorted from them and there's almost nobody you can trust. It's stifling, and I can't really stomach it anymore. I didn't want to quit before I knew I had something else to go to, but now it looks like that'll be taken care of."

"Hm, that's too bad."

 _Come on, Seto, you can do better than that,_ Seth goaded. _Tell him you'll miss him._

_I will do no such thing._

_Why not?_ Seth asked, wondering if Seto himself could even articulate the answer.

"I can't imagine that you like having your software stolen from you either," Duke pointed out, fidgeting with his dice earring as he prolonged the process of leaving.

"Not at all, but there's no other place for me but here, despite the corruption," Seto answered, eyes glued to the computer monitor.

"KaibaCorp isn't the only gaming corporation in need of innovative programmers, you know."

"Yes, but it's the only one with a branch in Domino City. I'd work for ShroederCorp if I could, since I doubt they could be as bad as all this, but I can't afford to move away for my work, not yet at least. I can put up with it for a little while longer, especially since Kaiba's out of commission and people are still scrambling to figure out what they're going to do while he's gone. For now, they're being a little lax with us, and I figure it would be in my best interest to take advantage of that in order to work on my own projects."

"It's after quitting time, you know," Duke said as he lingered by his worktable, completely ready to leave—except that he was still talking to Seto.

"I know, and they haven't been monitoring our overtime very carefully the past couple weeks." Not since he'd defeated Noah Kaiba in Death T-5. That was all he needed to say for Duke to understand: he was working overtime voluntarily and without permission, trying to rack up as much extra pay as he could get away with before they noticed what he was doing. There wasn't any definitive limit on the amount of weekly overtime you could work that was eligible for pay and a half, so Seto was just getting as much as he could, which included getting to work early and short-changing his lunch breaks. He was doing honest work for the company, so he wasn't being deceptive or wasteful in the use of his time. Given his current financial situation and the fact that they were unlikely to fire him over something so trivial as unapproved overtime, he thought it a wise decision.

Suddenly, Seto felt his desk chair being whirled around, his fingers forcibly removed from the keyboard. There was Duke, his hands on the back of Seto's chair as he leaned over Seto with an amused smile.

"It's five-thirty on a Friday, Seto. I'm not going to be here Monday and Tuesday, and I might not be around for much longer once I do get back. Taking all of that into account, and the fact that you and I never got a chance to properly celebrate the success of the Duel Arena, why don't you and I go out tonight and have a little fun. It'll be nice. I promise you'll enjoy it." Duke's tone was casual, as easygoing as ever.

 _See? He's going to miss you too,_ Seth teased.

"We're too young for clubs." It was the first thing that popped into Seto's head, and since he had prepared nothing else to say, it was also the first thing that popped out of his mouth. He probably could have said something more tactful if Seth weren't distracting him. It surprised a laugh out of Duke.

"I was just referring to dinner, but I know some places we could go afterward that can legally let us in—since that matters to you," Duke added with a wink, releasing Seto's chair and allowing him to save his work and log off the PC.

"I hope you know a good place, because I haven't been out to eat for the longest time," Seto said, pulling on his favorite dark purple trenchcoat as he followed Duke out of their workroom, flicking the lights off and closing the door behind him. Then he quickly texted Ryou that he'd be a couple hours late picking up Mokuba. He was glad to have gotten a new cellphone; his old one had been a line dedicated for scheduling clients, and he couldn't risk anyone he was associated with knowing that number. It would have been a recipe for disaster. So, he'd finally ditched the piece of junk for something a little more decent. This way, if anything ever happened to Mokuba, he could be reached at a moment's notice.

Duke smiled and said, "I know a few places."

It turned out that what he meant by "a few places" was that he knew every place worthy of your patronage in downtown Domino. Seto enjoyed the evening, even though it seemed to pass in a blur of neon lights, loud music, and strange faces. He would say that yes, he had fun, even if he felt oddly confused and conflicted throughout the whole thing. Seth kept saying that it was a date, and Seto kept denying it, feeling too embarrassed to admit that the spirit was probably right.

Duke was equally confused throughout the evening. He liked Seto, he really did, but he struggled to interpret his mixed signals. One moment he'd be laughing and enjoying himself, and the next he'd be withdrawing into himself, getting stiff and unresponsive. Was Seto trying to play hard to get? He doubted it. Seto was too transparent for such a shallow ploy. His next thought was that Seto himself was unsure of what he wanted, and he figured that was the most probable scenario. Good thing he figured it out before he had Seto on his doorstep.

"This was fun," Seto said, looking almost… relieved, or surprised, or both.

"Yes, it was," Duke agreed, grabbing hold of the front of Seto's shirt and pulling him into a kiss before Seto could get all wishy-washy on him. _At least this way he has a chance to see if it's what he really wants,_ Duke thought.

Seto was surprised, and Duke's tugging almost knocked him off-balance, but he recovered his wits in time to put up a hand and rest it on the wall behind Duke's head in order to support them both. He may have been surprised by the kiss, but not so surprised that he didn't return it. He was enjoying it, after all, and that was only the right thing to do.

When Duke finally pulled away a little, they were both faintly panting for air. Seto's mind was still clouded as Duke carefully released him, allowing the brunette to stand up straight and drop his arm from the wall.

"Do you want to come in for a little while?" Duke asked, his voice low and dusky in a way that somehow made it even harder for Seto to think. His emerald eyes seemed to glow in contrast to the street-lit twilight and the washed out colors of anything the shadows touched.

"I-I have to get Mokuba home." It was his first line of defense, however weak he made it sound at the moment. Certainly, he used to leave Mokuba at the Bakura's house until much later times than this in the past.

"It doesn't have to take long," Duke murmured, coming in close so that his lips were only an inch away, allowing Seto to make up his mind before he tried to initiate anything more.

"I… I can't," Seto finally managed to say, gently removing Duke's hands from his shoulders—he couldn't even remember how they'd gotten there—and held them between their chests, forcing a bit of distance between them. "I'm sorry, I'm just not ready for this."

"If you're not ready, then don't apologize," Duke said without a trace of bitterness. In fact, he flashed Seto one of his dazzling smiles and pulled a pen from his pocket, taking Seto's hand and carefully writing his cell number on the inside of his wrist. "When you're ready and I'm back in town, give me a call."

Seto looked down at the phone number and nodded, feeling grateful more than anything else.

"Thank you," he managed, looking up at Duke again as he began to realize just how vulnerable he was at the moment. He hated the vulnerability, but he'd rather enjoyed that which had required it. That posed quite a predicament.

"Don't mention it." Duke pulled his keys out of his pocket and unlocked the door, then leaned towards his partner and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Goodnight, Seto."

"Goodnight, Duke." Seto managed to find his voice before the other disappeared behind the door. Feeling stunned, aroused, confused, and a little overwhelmed, Seto started walking towards Ryou's house. This was going to be a longer walk than usual, and he was already late, but he felt like it had been worth it.

"I told you it was a date."

Seto rolled his eyes as Seth appeared at his side.

"Why didn't you say yes?" Seth asked, as if he really needed Seto to explain it to him.

"Because that's not something I can do on a moment's notice when I have no clear idea what my relationship is with him, or even if he sees that as having the same significance that I do." Seto checked his watch and sighed. "I needed time to gather my thoughts and get my bearings, so to speak."

"You should have said yes," Seth insisted.

"Well, the offer's still open," Seto said, looking down at Duke's number on his wrist. "I can still say yes if I want to. Although, to be fair, I probably won't," he added, looking troubled.

"Why not? He likes you, you like him. I don't see a problem."

"You know, the way you pretend that you _can't_ read my mind gets annoying sometimes," Seto complained with a roll of his eyes.

"Humor me," Seth replied with a smirk. In truth, he did that sometimes because he thought it was important for Seto to express himself in words, aloud, so that he could understand himself better.

"I'm not ready, just like I told him. I don't want sex right now."

"Your body does, though."

Seto glared at Seth with all the fire and irritation he could muster.

"I'm not wrong." Seth crossed his arms and gave Seto a serious, meaningful glance. "That's why it was _hard_ for you to say no. That's why you _wanted_ to say yes."

"I fail to see how any of this is your business," Seto countered, trying to block the progress of the conversation as a whole.

"It pertains to your happiness; therefore, I am a concerned, involved party whether you like it or not." His excuse sounded almost too perfect.

"Well, I _don't_ like it, and I _don't_ want to talk about it anymore." Maybe a blunt approach would be most effective. "So can we please just drop it?"

Seth nodded grudgingly, and they walked on in silence for a little while.

"You know, it's not natural for a body to go from so much sexual activity to such rigid sexual abstinence as yours has." Seth spoke so calmly, as if this were some kind of normal conversation, as if this were an okay topic for him to just bring up whenever he liked. Seto stopped walking and turned to face Seth, his face starting to turn red.

"Seth, I know you say that we're pieces of the same soul, but you need to respect some boundaries. Next time you wish to talk about this subject, please try to approach it with more… delicacy than you did this time. We're done talking about this for now." Seto turned away and started to walk again, but after a moment, Seth started speaking again.

"I think it's not just a matter concerning your personal life, but I'm afraid it might affect your health as well."

"Did you not hear what I _just_ said?" Seto asked, exasperated.

"And, since it might be a matter of health, and I depend on your body too, then it's of great concern to me that you do what you ought to be doing in order to stay healthy."

"I would swear that I'm talking to a wall," Seto griped as he rolled his eyes.

"I'm just saying that you could have benefited from one night with him."

"Seth, what part of, 'I'm not ready,' don't you understand?" Seto sighed heavily. "Honestly, I swear, you're more pig-headed than Joey sometimes."

"Hey, I'm not _that_ bad!" Seth exclaimed, feeling insulted.

"Yes you are, when you want to be," Seto said sourly. "Now think about _that_ inside your soul room and leave me in peace before I figure out how to banish you on my own so that you can't pull another stunt like this."

Seth pursed his lips, clearly displeased, but obediently disappeared.

 _You deserve to be displeased if you're going to act like THAT,_ Seto thought at him.

 _I can still hear you, you know,_ Seth answered, his voice distinctly grumpy.

_That's the point. I know you think of yourself as my father, but there are some lines that shouldn't be crossed without mutual agreement. That was one of them. Being pushy like that doesn't make me want to open up to you, so it does us more harm than good when you do that. Just give me some space to breathe and think and pretend that my thoughts are private so that I can figure myself out, okay?_

Seth's acquiescence was more of a sensation than it was a verbal response, and Seto was glad that he didn't protest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to all the Mastershippers out there!
> 
> It's funny how your characters can kinda take control from you for a little while and just run with your story like, "Screw you, we don't need an author. We can write this ourselves!" That's… kinda what happened with Seto and Duke and Seth in this chapter.
> 
> It was originally going to be this short little thing where Duke asked Seto out on a date, and Seto awkwardly says no, and Duke is super nice about it and they had a cute moment and that was gonna be it. But then Duke came off way too casually charming, and Seto was too blind to say no, then Seth decided to take the role of sex-ed teacher. I don't even know. O_O You'd think I would know, because I wrote it, but… *shrug*


	2. Invitation

Three weeks after the Death-T fiasco, and life was returning to normal for all of them, Seto being the only exception to that. Duke had said he'd only miss two days of work, but he'd been gone a full week now, and according to their superiors, he'd given his two weeks notice over the phone on Monday.

The current Duel Monsters regional tournament was drawing to a close, so Yugi had invited Joey, Seto, Anzu, and the others to his house to watch the championship match on TV. While Marik and Ryou played lightning rounds of Duel Monsters on the floor during the commercial break, Seto tried not to fall asleep in his chair. He'd fallen behind on sleep this week, and it was starting to catch up with him. Meanwhile, Yugi sat between Anzu and Joey on the couch, speculating as to who would emerge as the regional champion. Joey still didn't understand how bugs could beat dinosaurs, and Yugi was trying to explain to him that he should stop thinking in such literal terms when it came to Duel Monsters cards, because Duel Monsters existed in a world of its own with laws of its own.

"See?" Yugi said as Weevil Underwood pulled a move on Rex Raptor that completely blindsided him. "There's no single class of monster that's inherently better than the others; any class of monsters can come out on top if combined with the right strategy and the right magic cards."

The announcer on TV interrupted their conversation. "And now, a very special honor for our new champion! Here to present the Duel Monsters Regional Championship trophy, the creator of Duel Monsters and the president of Industrial Illusions, ladies and gentlemen and fellow duelists—I give you Mister Maximillion Pe-e-egasus!"

"Congratulations," Pegasus said graciously, smiling as he handed the small trophy to the bug duelist.

"Th-Thank you," Weevil stammered, clearly starstruck as he met the creator of Duel Monsters himself.

"And as regional champion, I invite you to compete in a bold new tournament I'm hosting at Duelist Kingdom!" Pegasus continued, looking to the camera now.

Later, as Pegasus left the stadium in his limo with a pair of his lackeys sitting across from him, he would take a moment to revel in his plan.

"Mister Pegasus, with the announcement that you made tonight, we'll have thousands of duelists flocking to Duelist Kingdom," one of those lackeys said in a flattering tone.

"Yes," Pegasus answered serenely. "An event such as this will hopefully attract those who possess the Millennium Items that I seek. Which reminds me…" He looked to his head of security.

Croquette answered promptly, "The package was delivered to the boy, just as you ordered, sir."

"Excellent!" Pegasus grinned. His plan had been put into motion; now he just had to wait for it to run its course.

In the meantime, though, Grandpa entered the room where his grandson and his friends were all gathered. "I just got off the phone with Professor Hawkins," he announced, holding a package. It had taken him this long to get a hold of him because the professor's research often took him to isolated locations with little to no cell-phone reception. "He'd given the Blue-Eyes card to his granddaughter Rebecca, and I spoke to her briefly on the phone." He turned to look at Seto now, who straightened up a bit as he gave his full attention to the elderly man. "She's only eight years old, and when I told her that the card had been ripped, she threw a bit of a temper tantrum and said she didn't want it anymore. I suspect she might change her mind at some point in the future, but until that happens, Seto, I trust you'll take good care of it." He handed the taped-together card to Seto, whose eyes grew wide.

"I–Thank you," Seto said, stunned. As he stared down at the card, his blue eyes glowing, Anzu spoke up.

"This is weird," she said, looking suspicious. "I thought there were only four of those cards in the whole world, so how did Seto get _three_ of them? The odds are against it."

"Well, it's his soul card," Grandpa said by way of explanation. "He was destined to obtain them. The Blue-Eyes only has one true master." He winked, but none of them could quite understand what he was referring to–none of them but Marik, who smiled at Grandpa as if they shared a secret.

"Well, I guess that makes sense, if it was his destiny," Anzu admitted with a sigh, although she still seemed to find it strange.

"What's that, Grandpa?" Joey asked, pointing to the package.

"Oh, yes, this is for Yugi. It arrived earlier today, but I forgot to give it to him."

"It's from Industrial Illusions!" Yugi gasped.

"Industrial Illusions?" Joey repeated. "That's the company that makes the Duel Monsters game! Why the heck would they be sendin' a package to _you_ , Yugi?" he asked, looking confused.

"I don't know. Let's open it and find out," Yugi said. Everyone was watching as he opened the box. The well-padded package contained a red fingerless glove with a thick metal wristband that had star-shaped holes punched in it. A plastic case containing two small star-shaped objects, and a plain black videotape.

"Some kind of glove," Anzu observed from Yugi's side.

"And stars," Joey added from Yugi's other side.

By this time, Seto had moved from sitting in his chair to standing behind the couch, his tall figure making Yugi look even smaller beneath him. "There's probably an explanation on the video," he suggested.

As Yugi picked up the video and looked at it, Joey said, "Yeah, pop it in and check it out."

"Okay." Yugi got up and went to the TV, the three closest to him following him forward. They were just as curious as him after all. All six of them were in front of the TV as Yugi pushed the videotape into the VCR. After several moments of static, an image finally became clear on the TV screen.

"Greetings, little Yugi. I am Maximillion Pegasus."

"Pegasus?!" Joey exclaimed, his jaw going slack.

"We just saw him on TV!" Anzu said in surprise.

"The famous Maximillion Pegasus sends greetings to MY Yugi?" Mr. Moto was just as shocked as the others.

"I have heard some terribly _interesting_ things about you, Yugi," Pegasus continued in the video.

"Huh?" Yugi couldn't imagine what Pegasus had heard about him. He didn't consider himself to be all that remarkable.

"Your friend's impressive defeat of Noah Kaiba intrigued me so much, I decided to investigate his amazing dueling skills. According to my investigation, he learned how to duel from _you_. Well, if that's true, then I would like a chance to duel you and assess your skills personally."

"Huh," Seto grunted, a hint of pride and a hint of skepticism in the sound as he crossed his arms. "Sounds farfetched to me," he muttered. "He's hiding something."

"I agree," Ryou murmured, glancing at the brunette beside him. "The whole thing smells rotten to me."

"Right here, right now, we shall hold a _special_ duel. We'll play with a strict time limit of fifteen minutes, and when time's up, the player with the highest life-points will be the winner! Are you ready?" Pegasus asked, his eye twinkling a little too brightly.

"Wha?" Yugi gaped at the TV.

"What?!" Joey echoed. "He can't seriously expect you to fight a duel against a _videotape_!"

"That's crazy!" Anzu exclaimed.

Pegasus chuckled, as though he had heard them, then looked right at them through the screen. A few strands of his hair fall aside, revealing a strange golden eye where his own eye should have been. It glinted and shone with an inner power, and the picture on the screen wavered as though seen through a heat haze. As everything around Yugi froze and time was suspended, his friends simply blacked out without sensing that anything had changed. His living room disappeared; he was now surrounded by shadowy blue clouds, just like when they'd played Monster World…

"Everything's growing dark and cold and the others aren't moving!" Yugi was starting to panic as he turned to face Pegasus again. "What've you done to them?! Where have you taken us?!"

"Hmhmhm," Pegasus answered, looking pleased with himself. "We're no longer in the world you know. But I will return you—after our game!"

"Then it's time to duel!" Yami answered Pegasus as he emerged from the Millennium Puzzle and joined Yugi. He wasn't going to let the young one do this on his own.

As they began the duel, Yami and Yugi struggled to understand what was happening as much as they struggled in the duel itself. How did Pegasus know what cards were in their hand? How were they playing a Shadow Game with him through a videotape? Why was he going through all this trouble just to duel a teenager who hadn't earned any sort of recognition for himself? Pegasus was playing with him, toying with his mind like it, too, was just a game.

"Three thousand years ago, a powerful pharaoh locked the magic of the shadow games away." Pegasus was offering the information without having been asked, which was curious in and of itself.

"What's this have to do with _me_?" Yami asked suspiciously.

"The Pharaoh captured these vast magical energies in seven mystical Millennium Items," Pegasus continued, ignoring Yami's question.

"Seven items? You're saying that— _my Puzzle's one of them?_ " Yami looked down at the puzzle for a few moments. He'd known that there were more Millennium Items, but he hadn't known how many there were total. He only knew of three: the Puzzle, the Rod, and the Ring.

"Yes, and there are mystical energies locked within it—magic that could change your life forever if you _only knew_ how to unleash it!" Pegasus seemed to be taunting him now, and it was effectively distracting Yami from the fact that there was a time limit on their game.

"But why are you telling me this?" It didn't make any sense to Yami why his opponent would give him this information.

"Why? Simply because I _need you to know._ But perhaps I have said too much. And since the clock is still ticking, I propose we resume playing our little duel."

They continued their duel, and while Pegasus continued to use tricky strategies, Yami was able to gain an edge on him using his Dark Magician. He was close to winning, so close, when the timer hit zero.

"Hm, well, we've run out of time," Pegasus observed with an unconcerned air. "But how close was that! If you had been able to complete that attack, I would have _lost_! But I didn't, did I. I have taken the measure of your talents this day, Yugi Moto, and when next we duel, we shall play for _far higher stakes!_ " Yami shivered at the open threat.

"I'm _done_ with your games!" Yami exclaimed just the same. He wouldn't let himself be intimidated by mere words.

"Tch-tch-tch," Pegasus scolded, wagging his finger at the teenager. "You presume I'm giving you a _choice_ in the matter." He pulled aside his hair, revealing the golden eye that resided where his left eye should have been. "But—I'm _not!_ For I, too, possess one of the seven Millennium Items—the all-powerful Millennium Eye!"

"A Millennium _eye_?!" Yugi found the idea revolting.

"That's right, Yugi-boy, and _now_ I'll show you the _true_ extent of its magic!"

With that, the Millennium Eye began to emanate a glowing gold light, and Yami braced himself for the worst. But the Eye wasn't targeting him—the beam of light hit his grandfather, who was still frozen in time behind him. Grandpa's ghost drifted out of his frozen body and vanished into the television screen.

"You see, I have found that, given the proper incentive, _anyone_ can be made to play my game!"

When Yami looked again, realizing nothing had happened to him, Grandpa's face appeared on the screen, calling out to him for help through the static.

"Yugi...!"

Yami's spirit withdrew so that Yugi was now fully himself once more, the confident presence gone. He gasped, confused for a moment, then realized with alarm what had happened. He felt an electric shock as he desperately tried to call to his grandfather.

"Grandpa! Grandpa!" Yugi cried as Pegasus chuckled to himself and spoke one last time.

"Yes, we _will_ duel again, Yugi–how else will you ever reclaim your grandfather's soul! Hahahahaha!"

Yugi watched in horror as Grandpa's face disappeared from the TV screen, unaware of the shadows disappearing around him. As his five friends woke up from their time-frozen state, grandpa keels over behind them, unconscious. Yugi didn't notice them, though, as he frantically shook the TV set in growing panic.

"Grandpa! Grandpa!"

"Yug, what's wrong?" Joey asked, confused. Meanwhile, Marik was trying to regain feeling in his hands, Ryou was anxiously wondering if he was the only one who'd blacked out, and Anzu put a hand to her head. The time-freeze had affected them all differently. Seto felt disoriented, and so did Seth, who didn't seem to know what just happened any more so than Seto did.

 _Someone just used Shadow Magic very cleverly,_ Seth informed his hikari after a few moments. _Only someone powerful and practiced can manipulate it in such a nuanced way._

"Hey Gramps, what's wrong?" Joey asked just then as he noticed that Mr. Moto was unconscious on the floor and rushed over to his side. "Gramps? Are you alright?" A panic gripped Joey then as he grew upset at the idea of losing the old man who'd become more of a mentor to him than his own parents.

Yugi was still overwhelmed with grief as he answered softly, "Pegasus stole his soul."

"What?!" Anzu was shocked as she joined Joey at Grandpa's side. "But how?"

"By using his Millennium Eye," Yugi answered quietly, his head hanging low as he still faced the TV, gripping it with both hands. Seto had run into the store and was dialing 911 so that they could get medical help for Grandpa—his soul may have been stolen by magic, but that didn't necessarily mean that doctors couldn't do anything to help him.

"Pegasus has the Millennium Eye?" Marik asked, his eyes wide. _So that's where it went,_ he thought gravely. As a tombkeeper, his family had been charged with protecting some of the Millennium Items in addition to many other secrets. Ishizu, who'd come into her own with the Millennium necklace on her eighteenth birthday, had warned Marik that he would encounter someone bearing a Millennium Item a few months after arriving in Japan. Pegasus must be that person.

"Millennium Eye? What's that?" Ryou asked, speaking at last. He'd gauged from other people's reactions that he wasn't the only one who had no idea what was going on and let out a sigh of relief. The only other times he'd blacked out like that were when the Spirit of the Millennium Ring had possessed him that spring and exacted his vengeance from several of his bullies, including their gym coach. He'd been so relieved after the Monster World fiasco when all of those victims woke up from their comas. Unfortunately, they all still remembered who was to blame for their comas, and Ryou'd had to work hard to stay out of trouble for the remainder of the school year. He'd only achieved this with a moderate degree of success; he knew for a fact that some of them were still out for revenge, but hopefully they'd all be over it by the time school got back in session.

"The Millennium Eye is one of the seven Millennium Items," Marik answered, surprising everyone but Ryou. "It contains powerful Shadow Magic like the others, but each Item's powers are somewhat different."

"Pegasus said the Eye was all-powerful," Yugi commented, finally turning around and plopping down onto the floor. He was trying hard not to cry, and the moment Ryou realized this, he moved closer to Yugi and hugged him comfortingly. Yugi was grateful and clung to his friend as he fought his tears.

"Ha! No single Millennium Item is all-powerful," Marik retorted. "Either he was bluffing or he's deceived about the extent of the Millennium Eye's powers."

"The ambulance is on its way," Seto announced as he re-entered the living room.

"Thanks, man," Joey replied, looking up at him gratefully. True, Solomon Moto wasn't _his_ grandfather, but he was the best parental figure in Joey's life, and he'd be almost as devastated as Yugi if he died. Seto nodded and crossed the room to kneel in front of Yugi. He and Marik were the calmest people in the room right now, since Ryou and Yugi were being emotional together and Joey and Anzu were still freaking out from the Shadow Magic.

"Yugi, you need to tell us what happened," he said firmly, hoping that putting an authoritative tone in his voice would help Yugi to pull himself together.

"We dueled, and he made it a Shadow Game," Yugi answered, sniffling as he turned from Ryou's shoulder to speak to Seto, Ryou keeping an arm around his friend even as Yugi's arms was still draped over Ryou's shoulders. Seto reached over to the coffee table and grabbed a tissue for him.

"Marik, wait by the front door so you can lead the paramedics to him when they get here," Seto ordered, and he obeyed without protest. He appreciated feeling useful.

Turning back to Yugi, Seto asked, "What happened during the Shadow Game? What did he want?"

"He told me about the Millennium Items… and a pharaoh…" Yugi muttered, then blew his nose into the tissue. Seto handed him another one with which to dry his eyes. "I lost the game, and he took Grandpa's soul…" He started to sob again, and he turned back to Ryou for comfort. Seto waited several moments before speaking again.

"Why, Yugi? What does he want from you?"

"H-He said that the only way I could get his soul back was to beat him in a duel," Yugi answered indirectly, accepting another tissue from Seto. "So I guess… I'm supposed to enter the Duelist Kingdom tournament. That must be what the glove and the stars are for." He spoke slowly, having trouble staying focused. "How else would I get to duel him?"

"Then that's what you're going to do," Seto assured firmly. "You're going to go to Duelist Kingdom, you're going to win the final rounds, and you're going to beat Pegasus and free your Grandpa's soul. Okay?"

Yugi smiled at Seto weakly, grateful for the calm reassurance he gave. Seto believed in him, and so did his friends. He could do this. He could pull himself together and save Grandpa.

The paramedics entered then, led by Marik. As Yugi rode with his grandpa to the hospital in the ambulance, Joey drove everyone else home, saying he didn't mind since he only had to make two stops anyways: Anzu's house and Ryou's house. From the latter, Seto would be walking home with Mokuba. After that, he joined Yugi at the hospital, offering him support and staying with him for as long as he wanted to stay there, driving him home when he was finally so tired that he could barely keep his eyes open. When Joey dropped Yugi off at home, he made a solemn promise to him.

"I swear, Yug, cross my heart, that I will do everything I can to help you get your grandpa back."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once Grandpa hands over the package to Yugi, all of the dialogue is quoted from the S1 E2 English dub (entitled "The Gauntlet Is Thrown") up until the point that everybody wakes up.


	3. Onboard

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "That's when I began to pray: Lord, show me how to say no to this. I don't know how to say no to this. But my God, she looks so helpless, and her body's saying, 'hell, yes.' Nooo, show me how to say no to this. I don't know how to say no to this. In my mind, I'm tryin' to go. (Go! Go! Go!) Then her mouth is on mine, and I don't say... No! No! Say no to this! No! No! Say no to this!"
> 
> ~Hamilton, "Say No To This," written by Lin-Manuel Miranda

Seto leaned his forearms against the ship's railing as he closed his eyes tiredly. The whole day had been exhausting. Ryou and himself had also received invitations to Duelist Kingdom, and had decided to accompany Yugi to Duelist Kingdom. After all, there was too much at stake not to go. Mokuba hadn't been fully enthusiastic with his decision, but he believed that his brother would cope well and forgive him when he came home. He'd put up a surprising amount of resistance that morning, but by the time Seto took his brother to the Bakuras' house, he'd been much more compliant.

_"Do you have to leave, Seto?" Mokuba asked for perhaps the fifth time that day._

_"Yes, Mokuba. I can't pass up this kind of opportunity," Seto answered patiently. For one thing, there was the recognition of earning his title by fighting his way through a tournament. For another thing, there was the prize money. Three million dollars. If he could win that, then he would be able to move out with Mokuba as soon as he got back and found a decent apartment. He'd already been looking for one, of course, but he hadn't made any decisions just yet._

_"But I'll miss you," Mokuba pouted, crossing his arms as he sat down on their bed. Seto sighed and turned back to his brother._

_"I'll only be gone for a few days," Seto assured with a smile. He and Mokuba had never really been away from each other before, so he understood if he was a bit anxious. "I'll call you every night, okay?"_

_Mokuba sighed, unconvinced that phone calls were a real substitute for his brother._

_"And it's not like you'll be alone. Marik and Amane will be there with you."_

_"But that'll be weird!" Mokuba exclaimed, flopping down onto the mattress dramatically. "They have a hard enough time talking to each other"—which made sense, given that she spoke primarily through sign language and Marik was still getting comfortable with Japanese—"and I'll have to keep translating for them."_

_"Hey now," Seto chided gently, kneeling down by his brother. "I want you to be nice to him. He's been away from his family for a very long time, and he doesn't know when he'll get to see them again. He's got a big brother too, you know."_

_"He does?"_

_"Yes, he does. And if Marik can wait this long without seeing his brother, then you can wait less than a week for me to return." He kissed his brother's forehead and smiled at him. "And, I have a present to give you before I go."_

_"You do?" Mokuba perked up at that, his eyes shining with excitement._

_"Yep." Seto stood and went to his dresser, taking something out of the top drawer before handing it to Mokuba. It was a locket shaped like a Duel Monsters card, and Mokuba accepted it eagerly. As he pushed the button to open it, Seto pulled a second locket from the drawer and opened it as well._

_"Where did you find this?" Mokuba gasped as he gently touched the image inside the locket. Seto held his own open locket next to Mokuba's._

_"It was in one of mom's sketches. I did some more digging around after I found that drawing she did of you and finally found it. I don't know how this picture got in there, maybe from when our cousin was helped look after us."_

_Mokuba smiled as he looked down at the image of his big brother as a little kid, looking like the happiest person in the world. And there was Mokuba himself, looking equally cheerful inside Seto's locket. They were two halves of the same photo. There were probably no copies, which meant that he had to be extremely careful not to lose this one._

_"I had both halves of the picture laminated to make them a bit more durable," Seto explained. "This way, we'll always be with each other, even when we're apart." He kissed his brother's cheek and tousled his dark hair. Mokuba threw his arms around his brother's neck, hugging him tightly._

_"Thank you, Seto. I love it." Still in his older brother's embrace, Mokuba closed the locket and hung it around his neck, Seto doing the same with his own. A few moment's later, Mokuba's eyes widened with epiphany._

_"You found Mom's sketchbook and didn't tell me?" Mokuba exclaimed as he pulled back in shocked indignance._

_"I was saving it for a Christmas present," Seto replied, grinning sheepishly. "But, circumstances being what they are, I thought I'd give it to you early." He stood up again and carefully extracted the sketchbook from the same drawer and handed it to his brother. "Be careful with it, alright?"_

_"I will be, I promise." Mokuba hugged the old sketchbook to his chest. Seto felt a pang in his own chest as he remembered that he wasn't the only one who missed their mother._

Seto had expected it to be just him, Ryou, and Yugi going to Duelist Kingdom. Then Joey had showed up at the marina and tried—unsuccessfully—to sneak on board. Joey may be an expert at other kinds of sneaking—like sneaking home late after curfew or sneaky into the girls' locker-room at school—but when it came to boats, he was somewhat clueless.

As the security agents tried to escort him away, Joey had started to make a scene, and Seto took pity on him. He knew that Joey wanted to come to Duelist Kingdom so that he could fulfill his promise to Yugi that he'd do everything he could to save his grandfather. Seto and Yugi were perhaps the only two people who truly understood just how much Mr. Moto meant to Joey. Yugi's grandfather had become the best father figure in Joey's life. He was the only one Joey felt comfortable talking to about his fights with his parents and their dysfunctional relationship with their only son. He'd been a strong influence that encouraged Joey to continue cleaning up his act, even when it was hard, even when he was tempted to slip back into some of his old bad habits.

Joey owed a lot to him, and Seto was well aware of that fact, which was why he'd stepped forward and stopped the guards from removing Joey from the premises by giving Joey one of his two star-chips. Joey had expressed much gratitude as he joined Seto, Yugi, and Ryou in the line to board the cruise-ship.

After they were on board and the ship had sailed, Marik and Anzu emerged from hiding and found their friends. While everyone else seemed happy to have the extra support of their friends, it made Seto uneasy. With Marik here, that was one less person to keep an eye on Mokuba and look out for him.

 _You're paranoid, Seto,_ Seth tried to assure him. _Miya will look after him._

_Please don't call Ryou's mother by her first name. It just feels weird to me._

That was when Seto, feeling pensive and wanting fresh air, had gone up onto the deck. He'd been hoping to enjoy some solitude when he was joined by a rather captivating character.

"Hi there, stranger." Seto looked to the side as the newcomer leaned back against the railing, resting against her arms so that she could face him. Seto took her in with a single glance: tight white bustier to flatter her ample chest, high ponytail of blond curls, dueling deck in a garter strapped to her thigh, short purple skirt, white knee-high boots, bright violet eyes, full red lips, exuding an aura of mature confidence. She was no teenager, easily old enough to be in college. He could imagine someone like Joey or Duke drooling all over her, but Seto, who had no interest in getting close to anyone in any way, was immune to her seductive charms.

"Hi."

"This is usually the time that I'd hit the bar, but there doesn't seem to be one on this ship. It's a pity." She gave him an equally appraising look before holding out her hand. "My name's Mai Kujaku. You can call me Mai. How about you?"

He shook her hand and answered, "Seto."

"Well, Seto, what's your story?" she asked, too curious, too cheerful for Seto's taste. "What brought you to Duelist Kingdom?"

"I'll tell you if you tell me," he replied quickly, wary of sharing any part of himself with a stranger.

"I'm a professional duelist. I started with nothing and worked for everything I have now. This is how I make a living. Your turn."

"I'm at the bottom, and I'm working my way up," he answered, mimicking the vague style of her answer. "I'm practically raising my little brother on my own. I need that prize money."

"That's so sweet," she observed, tilting her head as she swing her perfect, shiny ponytail from side to side for a few moments. "You're still in high school, right?"

"Well, no, but I graduated early, so I'm at that age."

"Ah, I see. You seem more mature than most guys your age." She subtly edged closer to him as she shifted her weight from one foot to the other, and while others might not have noticed, Seto did. Her eyes looked different now, her eyelids a tad lower, the new angle making her eyelashes look longer.

"So I've been told," he answered neutrally, starting to feel a bit nervous.

_What's the problem? She obviously likes you._

_That IS the problem, Seth. I can't like her._

_Why not?_

_I told you when Duke—Oh, nevermind, you don't listen._

_I DO listen, Seto, I just think that you're—_

"I don't suppose you came here alone, did you?"

How very subtle.

"I didn't come alone, but I don't have a girlfriend, if that's what you're asking," he replied bluntly, his cheeks starting to feel hot the closer she got to him.

"Or boyfriend?" she asked, just to be sure.

"Nope, don't have one of those either." Her perfume was starting to tickle his nose.

"Then would you like to accompany me back to my room?" she murmured, lifting a playful eyebrow at him. "We could… duel."

The thinly veiled offer of sex made Seto want to roll his eyes, and he was about to when she leaned forward and kissed him. He was frozen in shock, his lips burning from the contact, then for a moment, a single moment, he let himself kiss her back, even though it hurt him to do so. It would be rude not to, right? Or maybe, just maybe, his old instincts of suppressing every urge to refuse brazen overtures were still intact. That thought scared him.

He put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her away, taking a step back himself as he tried to find the words to reject her kindly. Mai just thought that he was nervous about sleeping with someone he'd just met. She opened her mouth to speak when Joey swooped in and saved them both.

"Hey Seto! How's it going?" He swung a friendly arm around Seto's shoulders, loosely hanging on him as Seto quickly snatched his hands from Mai's shoulders. "Who's your friend here?"

"Mai Kujaku," she said warmly, introducing herself as she held out a hand. "And I'll crush you when we get to the island." The thrill of competition gleamed in her eyes.

"Well, we'll see about that," Joey retorted as he shook her hand, enjoying the challenge. "Sorry to steal my buddy away from ya, but I've gotta ask him about a card for my strategy, so, you understand why we can't stay. We'll see ya around, though!" He started to make off with Seto, but Mai stopped him with a burst of laughter.

"What's _your_ name, silly?" she asked, her eyes twinkling.

"Oh, uh, Joey Wheeler. And don't you forget it!" And with that, the blond and the brunette escaped the vicinity of the magnetically attractive woman named Mai. Joey dragged Seto to the bow of the ship before he released him.

"What card did you have a question about, Joey?" Seto asked as he regained his breath. Why had Joey been in such a rush?

"Huh? Oh, yeah, that was a lie." He grinned sheepishly. "I thought you seemed kind of… uncomfortable with her. She was very… forward, don't you think?" In truth, he'd been watching the encounter between them, and when he'd seen the way Mai had kissed Seto, he was afraid for Seto, afraid that he might find it to be too much to what he'd experienced in his former profession as an "escort" and be depressed by it. That was a major contribution to why he'd interrupted at all.

Seto let out a sigh of relief and leaned back against the wall, sliding down to sit on the floor.

"God bless you, Joey Wheeler." The words were enthusiastic and filled with gratitude, and Joey smiled, glad that he'd been right in his assessment of the situation. He went over and sat next to Seto, the two of them staring out over the water together as the ship moved swiftly towards its destination.

"Are you… okay?" Joey asked hesitantly. Being the only one of his peers who knew the truth of what his life had been like for the past year meant that he was the only one who could ask that question and even hope to receive an honest, complete answer.

"No." Seto didn't know why, maybe because Joey had managed to keep his secret a secret for as long as he had, but he decided to trust him with something equally personal and private.

"What's wrong?" Joey immediately became tense and worried, afraid of an immediate physical threat as opposed to the psychological one he was actually facing.

"I really wish she hadn't kissed me," Seto whispered, as if he was too afraid of someone overhearing for him to speak up, even with the sound of the water canceling out all white noise and filling their ears with a dull steady roar. "I didn't want her to, but at first I couldn't… I couldn't stop her. It's like I've gotten so used to just putting up with anything that's done to me, I don't know how to refuse anymore." He wrapped his arms around himself as if for protection. "It scares me."

Joey gazed at Seto with sad eyes, both shocked and appreciative that Seto was taking this leap of faith with him. "But you _did_ push her away, eventually. Your survival instincts are still in there, deep down. I trust that you'll be able to exercise them when it counts. I don't know what that feels like, and I can't say with certainty how or when that feeling will go away, if ever. But I do know that you're smart and you're strong, and you'll be able to protect yourself when it matters most, because you'll always have someone to fight for besides yourself." He'd learned quickly that Seto appreciated brutal honesty much more than optimistic flattery.

"Thank you," Seto replied with a sigh, still looking troubled, but feeling a bit better from Joey's words. They glanced at each other then, and Joey could understand why Mai had kissed Seto: he was beautiful in the moonlight, his eyes like stars. Joey licked his lips, looking as if there was more that he wanted to say, but before Seto could ask him what was on his mind, he seemed to brush that thought away and replace it with a cheerful smile.

"Have you called Mokuba to say goodnight, yet?"

"No, not yet."

"How about you do that now before joining us downstairs to sleep. I'm sure it'll make you feel better."

Seto smiled back as Joey stood. "Thanks. You're right. I'll see you downstairs, then."

They waved a farewell to each other as Joey left to give Seto some privacy for his phone call.

* * *

Seth awoke in the middle of the night, when most everyone else was asleep, including Seto. Why was he awake? He looked around, but there was nothing that would have disturbed his sleep. He didn't feel tired, but wide awake. He sat up slowly, and found that he felt stiff and cramped from the defensive position Seto had chosen to sleep in. He stood and stretched, careful not to disturb those around him as he made his way out of the room. It made him feel claustrophobic. He was used to the open spaces of the desert, the broad black night sky glittering with more stars than you could count. The street lights in Domino made it hard to see any stars at all. Maybe he'd have more luck out here on the ocean. He made it to the deck, and he took a moment to savor the cool brisk breeze, the salty sea air. He was a little disappointed by the sky, but it was still better than nothing. Compared to what you could see in the desert, though, it did seem like nothing. The phrase _light pollution_ floated into Seth's consciousness from Seto's sleeping mind. He lay down on the deck, staring up at the stars for quite a while. He was pleased to recognize the constellations, even though they weren't in the right places. Then again, he remembered from conversations he'd overheard that Japan was very far from Egypt.

A fresh pang of homesickness hit him then for the first time since reuniting with this part of his soul. He hadn't had the time to be homesick until now. Before, he was preoccupied with concerns about Seto, about Mokuba, about Ryou's struggle with the Spirit of the Ring, about Seto's alcoholic father, about Yugi's grandfather, about the evil in Noah Kaiba's soul, about his amnesic cousin's spirit. Right now, though he was at peace. There wasn't anything they could do about any of those concerns, at least, not while they were on the boat to Duelist Kingdom. With his mind clear, no impending crisis or disaster for him to prepare for, he was actually able to relax and enjoy these moments, and to enjoy being young again, for that matter.

Every other time he'd taken over Seto's body, it had been for a very specific reason: to protect Seto from imminent danger. The danger took various forms—Death-T, Noah Kaiba, debilitating injuries, Gozaburo Kaiba—but the reason itself was always the same. So why was he awake now and not Seto? He may have been a priest and sorcerer, but there were still mysteries he had yet to unravel. He did know that Seto deserved to continue to sleep, though, and that his body deserved it too.

He stood up at last, somewhat regretfully, and began to make his way back to the room where his friends were sleeping. He must have made a mistake, though, for he soon found himself helplessly lost inside the ship's body. He didn't recognize this hallway. Had he taken a wrong turn, or a wrong set of stairs? Was this the wrong floor? Then suddenly, she was there. Seth turned a corner and almost bumped into her, the woman Seto had found to be alluring, but whom he'd rejected.

"I apologize. I should have been more careful," he said quickly, speaking in a sincere, friendly manner.

"Thank you," Mai replied, pleasantly surprised by his manners. "Few people know how to treat a lady properly these days." She took him in with a swift glance, still pleased with what she saw. "Would you mind walking me to my room?" she asked innocently, fluttering her eyelashes a bit. "The empty halls on this ship are a bit creepy at night, and they've made me all jumpy."

Seth felt heat rise in his cheeks as he answered, "Of course." She slipped her hand into his elbow as he escorted her back to her room. "What were you doing up and about this late?"

"I could ask you the same thing!" she teased, leading them towards her room as they walked. "I got up to see if I could find any food anywhere on this ship. I did bring food with me for the island, of course, but if I could avoid using my rations if at all possible, I would prefer it that way."

"Did you find any?"

"Nothing!" She sighed melodramatically. "You'd think someone as rich as Pegasus could afford to feed the people he invited to his island, but no! That's rich people for you." She rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"I know what you mean," he replied without thinking, but when she looked at him with a question in her amethyst eyes, he added, "I work for KaibaCorp, and Noah Kaiba acts the same way."

"They're all the same," she agreed. "The millionaires and billionaires, anyways." She brought them to a halt as they reached her door. "Thank you for walking with me," she purred, looking up at him warmly, her eyes bright. Something stirred inside Seth, and he realized that he was now in danger of making a terrible mistake. How had he been so foolish as to expose himself to such a strong temptation? She stepped up close to him, and he started praying to the gods, to Osiris, Horus, Anubis…

_Ra, show me how to say no to this._

"You know, we didn't get to finish talking earlier," she murmured, her voice taking on a new quality. He blushed as he prayed to Hathor, Bastet, Sekhmet…

_I don't know how to say no to this._

"Since we were interrupted, how about we continue now?" Even though she was so brazenly sexual, she still had a vulnerable, almost innocent look in her eyes. Her body, though, was not the body of some skittish girl. It was mature, it was begging to be touched…

_Holy Ra, how do I say no..._

Seth was imagining himself going, leaving her behind. He just had to move his foot, and that first step would get him going. If he could just move… But three thousand years of aching solitude crashed upon him with a crushing weight as she pressed her lips against his. And suddenly, he didn't know how to move, how to push her away, or how to say no.


	4. Touch

Mai dragged Seth into her room, their lips still locked together. His hands went to her waist, pulling her body flush against his own. Gods, it had been _so_ long, too long, since he'd had anything like this. She was not only enthusiastic, but skilled, and if she'd made it difficult to say no before, she had made it nearly impossible to say now.

As she started to unbutton his shirt, though, and cold air hit his bare chest, the chill managed to shock him back to his senses. Before Mai had even exposed his locket, Seth pulled her hand away, stopping her progress. They both grew still, and Mai pulled back to look up at him with a question in her eyes.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do this," Seth murmured, still trying to fully catch his breath. Mai twirled a strand of Seth's dark hair around her finger as she sighed.

"I don't suppose there's anything I can say to change your mind, is there?" Of course, there was plenty she could _do_ that would change his mind, but he was young, and she knew that wouldn't be fair of her to do.

"I'm afraid not. It's nothing personal, just that… I would be breaking a promise to a friend if I went through with this."

"I thought you said you weren't in a relationship."

"I'm not. It's… complicated."

"I see." She stepped away and Seth started buttoning up his shirt, mildly fascinated with the buttons themselves. They hadn't had such things in ancient Egypt. Ancient. Was he really ancient? He didn't feel that way, but he did know for sure that he was over three thousand years old, so that made him ancient, by modern definitions.

"Well, good luck in the tournament," Mai said as a farewell, sitting on the edge of her bed with an air of vague uncertainty, like she didn't know what to do with herself now.

"You too," Seth replied as he left her room. After a bit of wandering, he found his way back to the upper deck. He still wasn't sure how to get back to the room where his friends and Seto's backpack were, so he went to the prow of the ship and watched the sky and the sea, staring out at them in wonder as he tried with difficulty to not think about where he'd be right now if he hadn't stopped himself.

He failed in this endeavor, however, as images of Mai started flashing through his mind's eye. He groaned with frustration as he tried to stop picturing what he'd almost had, knowing that it would just make him feel more needy and restless.

_Seth, what have you done?_

The former pharaoh shuddered as he heard Seto's horrified voice in the back of his mind. He must have just woken up.

 _I didn't do anything, don't worry,_ he assured, but Seto didn't believe him.

_You obviously did SOMETHING, Seth. What have you done?_

His words prompted Seth to remember his kiss with Mai, and as it floated to the forefront of his mind, Seto exuded disgust and anger.

_I can't believe you._

_Seto, let me explain—_

_I don't want to hear anything you have to say._

_Too bad, because I am NOT going to let this linger between us,_ Seth retorted. He wrapped his hand around the Millennium Rod and closed his eyes, focusing hard so that he could put this body to sleep and meet Seto in his soul room. They need to figure this out before they let any time go by. Putting it off would just be incredibly destructive.

* * *

"Well look who it is," Seto muttered sourly as Seth materialized out of the shadows. "Had fun?"

"Please don't talk to me like that, Seto," Seth said quite seriously in one of those rare moments that he expressed true displeasure with his hikari. "The least you can do is show a little respect."

"Respect has to be earned," the moody teen retorted.

"And have I not earned it?" Seth asked sharply. Seto was really trying his patience at the moment.

"Gee, I don't know, do you treat my body like it's mine or like it's yours?" Seto's insolent words were full of bitterness. "You should have _asked_ me if it was alright to kiss her, or do anything else."

Seth's eyes flamed for a moment as he crossed his arms, coming to a halt as he stood in front of Seto. "I didn't follow through with it, Seto, and I never planned on doing so."

"The way you were carrying on with her, you were clearly about to do just that."

Seth breathed deeply for a few moments, letting his anger cool. He uncrossed his arms and came to sit beside Seto.

"You're right. I wasn't as careful as I should have been, and if I'd kept myself out of that situation in the first place, I wouldn't have come so close to laying with her." Seto scowled with displeasure. "I'm sorry, Seto. You're right. Can you please forgive me for my thoughtlessness?"

Seto felt his own anger begin to ebb. It was hard to stay mad at him when he sounded so apologetic and regretful. "I forgive you," he grumbled. "Just don't do that again, okay? I hate losing control like that, and I can't risk something bad happening as a result of _your_ actions." What he didn't say was how something like that had already happened, with Noah and Gozaburo, and it had resulted in Seto receiving severe injuries.

"I still think you should have accepted her offer. It would have been good for you."

Seto's cheeks began to feel like they were on fire. "I don't see how that could have been the case," he muttered, hoping Seth would drop the subject.

"You know as well as I do that you've hated touching people, Mokuba excluded of course, because of your… experiences."

Seto stiffened, hoping that this wasn't going where he thought it was going.

"In addition to that, you can't stand the thought of any kind of intimacy with another person."

"I don't have time for romance!" Seto said, a little louder than he'd meant to.

"Intimacy and romance often keep each other company, true, but intimacy can be had without romance, and you know that."

"Please, just stop," Seto whispered, covering his ears and trying to tune out the spirit's words. He wasn't going to put up with this again.

"I know that, until Duke, you'd never had any intimacy outside your former occupation—"

"Shut up, shut up, shut _up_ ," Seto growled, but Seth continued.

"And I think you need to experience the truth that sex doesn't have to be unpleasant or cause you pain."

"We're not talking about this!" Seto was growing furious, and he removed his hands from his ears. Why couldn't Seth ever just shut up?

"Your body has needs—"

"No!" Seto shouted, turning on Seth with an icy glare. "I am _not_ going to have this conversation with you!"

"Who else, then?" Seth challenged. "Who else would you talk to about these things? Yugi? Joey? Ryou?"

"Hell, no!" Seto yelled, his face red with outrage and embarrassment. "I'm not going to talk to anybody about it! There's nothing wrong with me! I don't need to be fixed!"

"No, you don't need to be fixed," Seth answered quietly, his eyes looking suddenly sad. "But you do need to be freed, and you do need to think carefully through these things before you make any kind of life decision."

"Freed from what?" Seto growled, still prickly after Seth had pushed him so far out of his comfort zone.

"Freed from your anxiety. It's hurting you, and I don't want you to continue hurting. I want you to be able to walk down the street and feel safe as you go about your life."

"Huh," Seto grunted skeptically. "Like that'll ever happen."

"It could, if you let it," Seth said quietly, his voice almost hopeful.

"Why should I _feel_ safe when it's _not_ safe?" Seto protested.

"It is safe, you just don't believe it is." Seth sighed, deciding to give up on that notion for now. He could make more progress in a different way for now. "At least, it's safe for you to be around your friends. They don't mean you any harm, so you shouldn't be on your guard when you're around them."

"I have too many secrets; keeping my guard up is a necessity."

"But surely you won't spill your secrets just because they give you a hug," Seth pointed out, making Seto frown.

"I don't have to hug people if I don't want to."

"No, you don't, but you should receive hugs graciously when they're offered. It's a matter of courtesy and of reinforcing the strength of your relationships."

"Just drop it." Seto was done talking about his issues, but Seth, apparently, wasn't. Seto started as he felt Seth place a hand on his shoulder, and he quickly brushed it away. "Don't touch me."

"I'm not hurting you, am I?"

"No, you're not, but that's not the point." Seto scowled at the Egyptian man and edged away from him.

"Then what's the problem?" Seth asked as he reached out to touch Seto's hair. His reincarnation ducked his head to dodge the hand, leaning away from him as if to be touched by him would give him the plague, or leprosy. Seth's hand caught Seto's chin as he stood on his knees to lean closer to the lanky brunette. He blinked clear blue eyes at the younger one as he waited for an explanation.

"It… It burns," Seto whispered, his voice wavering. Usually, when someone touched his clothes, he was mostly alright, unless the gesture caught him by surprise. It was only when he made direct contact with skin that he felt that strange burning sensation that made him feel like he needed to get away from everyone as quickly as possible.

"But it doesn't have to," Seth murmured gently, releasing Seto and sitting back on his heels as he watched him scramble further away before wrapping his arms around himself again and resuming his former brooding. He looked more like he was pouting now, though.

"Let me help you, Seto," he pleaded softly, moving closer to him and reaching towards him with one hand.

"Touch me again, Seth, and I _swear_ I'll throw the Millennium Rod into the ocean!" The words came out loud and harsh, and Seth dropped his hand to the floor in obedience, going still as Seto shuddered and drew the back of his hand across his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Seto," he whispered, shifting to sit close to Seto without touching him. This was more serious than he'd realized.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, originally, this chapter was about 5k words long. Then I realized that was ridiculous and found a good point near the middle to break it up. The next chapter will be what would have been the second half of this chapter. So, if it feels like I didn't accomplish much in this chapter, that's why.


	5. Exercise

"Are you really this afraid of being touched?"

Seto just nodded while looking in the other direction. There were rare moments now and then when direct skin contact didn't burn him, like when Duke had kissed him. For some reason, he'd been alright with that. But even then, it stressed him to be touched by someone else. Most of the time, he kept as much of his skin covered as possible with pants and long sleeves and his trench coat, so when he was wrestling Joey, there was little to no skin contact whatsoever. The idea of wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt, however, filled him with paralyzing anxiety.

This was worse than Seth had realized.

"I'm just trying to help you, Seto. People are starting to notice that something is wrong."

"They are?"

"Ryou most certainly is. He watches you like a hawk. And if Ryou has concerns about you, then he's definitely voiced them to Marik, and who knows who they've talked to about it. Plus, you did drop Joey's name that time you were assaulted, so they've probably talked to him about it by now."

Seto shuddered, drawing closer into himself.

"You need to learn to be okay with human contact again. What are you afraid of, Seto?" he asked quietly.

"Being touched. I thought we already established that," he muttered half-heartedly.

"But what are you afraid will happen when someone touches you? Are you afraid that you'll be hurt? That someone will try to molest you?"

"Yes," Seto answered hoarsely.

"Which one?"

"Both." He wouldn't meet Seth's gaze, too ashamed to face the older, wiser soul. "I… have a hard time trusting people besides myself," Seto admitted quietly, as if he thought Seth hadn't figured it out on his own already. Seth was proud of him for saying it out loud, though.

"Given your life so far, I can understand why that would be difficult, but wouldn't you like to be able to relax and share your burdens with someone else, trusting that they will do their best to help you?"

"That does sound nice," Seto murmured, his eyes distant.

"I know it's not easy, but can you at least try to trust me?" Seth pleaded. They'd had moments in the past where Seto had either been forced to trust Seth, or he'd had no other option available to him. Those had been a start, but they weren't enough. There was still some part of Seto that denied and resisted the magic, the Egyptian spirit, and everything else he had a hard time swallowing. The implications of those things were just too much for him to handle, but he needed to embrace them for things to work between them the way they needed to. Seth hadn't bargained on how stubborn this piece of his own soul would turn out to be.

"I can try…"

Seth kissed the top of Seto's head quickly, before he could pull away. "Then let's try this out now," he said, standing up, holding out a hand to help his hikari stand as well. After a moment, Seto took it and stood beside the older man, releasing his hand as soon as he was on his feet.

"Do you see where we are, Seto?"

"My soul room."

"Look at the floor, look at the ceiling, the walls. What do you see?"

"We're… inside a giant cage," Seto answered, realizing this fact for the first time. Seth pointed toward a large opening.

"There is no door to cover the entrance, so why don't you try to escape?"

Seto looked up at Seth curiously, then toward the large hole in the silver bars of the cage. He approached it and looked out.

"We're hanging over a bottomless pit," he scoffed. "How on earth am I supposed to escape?" He turned around to face Seth, but he had disappeared.

"Maybe you can try trusting me."

Seto turned around and saw that Seth was standing on a faraway ledge.

"How the hell did you get over there?" Seto demanded, getting irritated.

"Unimportant," Seth said dismissively. "I want you to come over here and join me."

"How?" Seto asked, exasperated. "There's nothing but empty space between here and there."

"You can get here safely if you trust me," Seth answered calmly, despite Seto's growing agitation. "Keep your eyes on me, no matter what, and walk this way."

"Do you really think I would fall for something like this?" Seto asked, his temper riled. "There's nothing to walk on. I'll fall to my death."

"Seto, the moment you believe that, you make it true." Seth's low, steady voice made Seto shiver as it cooled his temper. Seto looked down into the abyss, but Seth said, "Eyes up, Seto. Focus on me." Seto looked up, feeling anxious as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "Good. Now all you have to do is put one foot in front of the other."

"Right, and when I do, there's no way I'm gonna fall," Seto said sarcastically, still standing halfway on the edge of the cage. "You're insane."

"We're in your soul room, Seto. You can't be harmed here unless you wish it." That wasn't precisely true, because the longer Seto waited in the cage, the more danger he was in from forces he didn't explicitly control.

"I don't wish it," Seto snapped.

"Then you have nothing to be afraid of," Seth answered with a patronizing smile.

"I don't trust things I can't see." Seto crossed his arms, the perfect image of a stubborn child.

"Do you want to spend the rest of your life in a cage?" Seth asked coolly, his eyes narrowing.

"Of course not!" Seto's pride was wounded by the implications of such a thing.

"Then why don't you leave it?"

Seto looked disgruntled for a few moments as he tried to make up his mind.

"You promise that I won't fall?" he asked hesitantly. He couldn't believe that he was actually considering this.

"I promise that as long as you keep your eyes on me and trust that you'll be safe, you will be."

Seto took a few deep breaths, then grabbed hold of the nearest bar of the walls of the prison-like cage. He looked up at Seth, staring straight ahead as he inhaled and tentatively put his foot forward. He felt something solid beneath it, and gasped in surprise.

"Good!" Seth called encouragingly. "Keep your eyes on me, Seto, and put one foot in front of the other." Seto hesitated, and he added, "Just let go, Seto. You'll be alright."

This was difficult for the teen who'd learned to be suspicious of people, who'd learned that people couldn't be trusted. Up until now, every time he'd placed significant trust in another person, he had been forced to do so. Dr. Bakura had discovered a part of the truth through his own pursuits, and Seto'd had no choice but to trust that he would keep the information confined to only himself and his wife. He'd had no choice but to trust that Joey would keep his secret to himself. The older he got, the less he depended on others for anything, making himself as independent as possible so that he'd never _have_ to trust anyone too deeply.

Seto let go and took another hesitant step forward, resisting the urge to look down and try to discern what he was walking on.

"I love you as my son, Seto. I only want what's best for you."

Another step forward.

"Ryou loves you—"

"Ryou loves Marik," Seto corrected, starting to waver. This was foolish. He was going to fall to his death.

"Platonically, I mean," Seth qualified, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. "Ryou loves you, and you trust him deeply. Consider the fact that you entrust him with Mokuba's wellbeing when you don't even trust your own father."

Another tentative step forward, and Seto was having a hard time keeping his gaze fixed on Seth's cerulean eyes. He wanted to look down, to be sure of his step, to make sure that he didn't fall.

He burst out suddenly, "Seth, I can't do this." He was just as crazy as Seth for thinking that this was going to work. Whatever was under his feet felt unsteady and shifting, only confirming his fears.

"Yes, you _can_ do it, Seto," Seth insisted, hiding his sense of alarm as he saw that Seto started to doubt him. That doubt was putting him in danger. "Keep your eyes on me, and you'll be fine."

"How can you promise that?" Seto demanded, looking genuinely frightened. He wasn't ready to die.

"You're just gonna have to trust me."

It was the best answer Seth could give. For now, though, it seemed like enough, for Seto still stood there, staring at him with an odd mixture of anxiety and stubbornness. Clearly, he was going to stand his ground until he was given sufficient reason to move again.

"Continue walking, Seto," Seth said patiently, holding the identical azure gaze steadily with his own, knowing that if he looked away, so would Seto, whose feet now shifted nervously. "You believe in Ryou's goodness, which is in itself invisible and intangible."

"But I can see the empirical evidence of it," Seto countered confidently, taking a step forward a few moments after he spoke, realizing what Seth was trying to demonstrate to him with that comment. It wasn't true that he only believed in the things he could see; he believed in things that were invisible, but that still manifested themselves in perceivable ways.

"Exactly. Dr. Bakura has raised his son to be a good man, which is evidence that he himself is a good man worthy of your trust."

Another shaky step.

"Marik loves you. His family has, for the last three thousand years, served myself and Atem by guarding our tombs and protecting some of the Millennium Items. We—you and I—are one of two pharaohs that he serves wholeheartedly. He has knowledge of the ancient scriptures and understands that we are here because we have a great burden to carry, a war to fight in the name of all that is good in order to save the world. That is why you can trust him."

"What are you talking about?" Seto asked, perplexed as he stood still.

"I'm talking about why I'm here, why you received the Millennium Rod, why my soul resides partially within you. You've asked me about it before, and I'm only just telling you now because we may have to face that evil again very soon. Keep walking, Seto."

Hesitantly, the brunette obeyed, though he didn't feel like he was getting much closer to his destination.

"You need to _believe_ what I'm telling you, Seto," Seth said, a pleading note in his rich voice. It wasn't just enough for him to trust his words because he trusted Seth; he needed to learn to own his faith, to believe on his own.

"Why can I trust you?" Seto challenged, doubt nagging at him once more. "Since you seem so keen on that subject right now, explain it to me: why can I trust you?"

"I already told you," he answered with a sigh. "You are a piece of my own soul. I could no more wish to harm you than I could wish to cut off my own hand or poke out my own eyes."

"Fair enough, if what you say is true," Seto conceded reluctantly, taking another step forward. He blinked hard as he tried to keep his eyes up.

"Yugi loves you. You've protected him, and he looks up to you."

"Well, he's a pacifist," Seto scoffed, clearly disagreeing with his peer's philosophy. "They're made of glass. There's not a mean bone in his body."

"That's right," Seth answered with a smile. It seemed like Seto was finally starting to catch on. "He's naive, innocent, and good. He could never be malicious, even if he tried. That's why you can trust him."

Seto took another step forward, starting to feel more steady.

"Anzu loves you. She loves Yugi, and because you've protected him, she loves you by extension. She sees that you have a good heart, albeit a fierce one, and that you stand up for those who are unable to defend themselves. She knows that if she were to wrong you, she'd lose you as a protector, should she ever be in need of one. That is why you can trust her." Finally, an appeal to self-interest. Seto definitely trusted in that.

Seto took a step forward, then another. Finally, he felt like he was getting somewhere. Seth was growing excited as he saw that Seto was starting to truly believe him.

"Ryou's parents love you as if you were their own son. They took care of you when you were hurt and unable to stand. They have kept your secret, even from the authorities, despite the fact that they think it would benefit you and your brother. That is why you can trust them."

Seto was getting closer, walking at an almost steady pace across the chasm, floating on air, kept aloft only by his faith in Seth and what Seth said.

"Joey loves you. You never realized it on your own, but the sight of your pain was the impetus that drove him to change his ways. Since he's changed, his life has been far happier than it ever used to be. He has real friends now, something he hasn't had in a long time. _You_ made him good, made him happy, and he knows it. Now he feels a loyalty and respect for you that he never felt towards anyone before. That is why you can trust him."

Seto was getting close, very close to the ledge where Seth stood.

"Duke loves you. You've impressed him with your intellect and character, and he sees you as a good friend. He would never wish to alienate you or lose your respect. That is why you can trust him."

"I think you've forgotten someone rather obvious," Seto pointed out with a small smile.

"I could never forget him," Seth assured as he returned the smile. "Mokuba loves you, more than he loves anyone else in the world, even Amane. You've always been there, a constant, positive presence in his life. He's always looked to you for guidance, for sustenance, for protection. You're not just his brother, you're his father, his mother, his best friend, his role model, all wrapped into one."

"His mother?" Seto asked, raising one dubious eyebrow at the Egyptian.

"You know what I mean," Seth insisted with a sigh. "You've functioned as one since your true mother is gone. He loves you unconditionally and absolutely _adores_ you. He hates the idea of seeing you hurt or upset or unhappy. That is why you can trust him."

Seto let out a sigh of relief as he stepped onto the ledge in front of Seth, suddenly being pulled into a close embrace as the sound of something loud and heavy breaking filled his ears. He was able to turn his head just enough to see that there had been chains holding the large cage suspended in the air. They looked old, rusty, and unstable, which was probably why one had snapped. That added strain to the others, and they proceeded to break. Seth brought a hand up to shield Seto's eyes from any debris that might fall their way. The cage fell and not too long after crashed onto the dark bottom of the room with a loud, startling clatter. The whole thing unnerved Seto, who shook just a little as Seth's strong arms continued to hold him close.

"What just happened? I'm confused." Seto's expression showed it too.

"Some people are content to let fear imprison them their whole lives," Seth answered obscurely. "Most people don't realize how the fear itself poses a greater threat to them than the things they fear. You're destined for greatness, which means that you need to learn to leave the fear behind."

"So you're saying that I'm cured? Just like that?" Seto asked doubtfully. He decided that he wasn't willing to enter the whole, "I don't believe in destiny," argument again. That wasn't important right now.

"Well, it wasn't easy, was it?" Seth pointed out. "You wouldn't have been able to do it if I weren't here to help you."

"Fair enough," Seto admitted grudgingly, making Seth smile at him again.

"You needed someone to show you that people are worthy of trust, and why. You wouldn't have allowed yourself to believe as much unless you felt how greatly you _needed_ to have faith."

"So you're saying that all of this was just some elaborate, metaphorical trust exercise?" Seto asked, realization striking him like a blow. "Couldn't we have just done a trust-fall or something?"

"No, I'm afraid it wouldn't have had quite the same effect," Seth answered with a laugh. He kissed Seto's forehead and loosened his embrace so that he could push Seto's long bangs aside. "You feel a lot better now, though, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do," Seto answered quietly, not quite able to meet Seth's piercing gaze.

"Good. Don't forget this feeling. Whenever you start to doubt those close to you, remember what I told you about why they could be trusted."

"I will," Seto promised quietly. He was a little distracted by the strange sense of freedom he now felt. He could breathe a little easier without all that anxiety burdening him.

"It's wise to be wary of strangers, but you need to show that you trust the people who care about you. You don't have to live in fear."

"But not all fear is bad, right?" Seto asked, sounding for a moment much younger than he was, as if he were a child questioning his father.

"Right. Sometimes it's the very thing that keeps us safe and out of harm's way. That's the difference between rational and irrational fears. It's rational to be afraid of crocodiles or bears or lions, because they're powerful predators capable of killing you. Healthy fear will help you avoid a threat. Unhealthy fear interferes with your ability to lead a normal life, and I think you'd agree with me if I said that what you felt fell into the latter category."

"Yeah, I guess it did," Seto muttered.

"I'm glad that you see that now." Seth gave him one last squeeze before releasing him. "Go forth and live freely."

"Why do you have to talk like a Shakespearean fortune cookie?" Seto grumbled, making Seth laugh heartily, tousling Seto's hair with one hand.

"It doesn't burn _now_ , does it?" he asked softly.

"N-No, it doesn't," he murmured, closing his eyes as a sense of relief flooded him.

Seto's soul room started to fade around them, and Seto found himself waking up on the prow of the ship, facing the sun just as it began to peek above the horizon.


	6. Arrival

"Come on, we'll miss it!" Marik ran up the narrow stairs with excitement as Ryou followed behind, suppressing a yawn. It was early, too early for many people to be awake just yet. This had been Marik's idea, though, and Ryou couldn't say no to him.

"I'm coming, I'm coming," Ryou called out as Marik burst onto the deck and turned around to watch Ryou ascend the stairs at a slower pace. The tanned teen was practically bouncing with excitement while his white-haired lover still seemed groggy with sleep. The moment Ryou set foot on the deck, Marik seized his hand and pulled him along in a hurry, Ryou smiling in amusement. Marik finally came to a rest at the very front of the ship, just in time to watch the sunrise. After so many years in the darkness, it felt glorious to see the light, and sleeping inside the hull of the ship had felt too much like being underground again. His eyes were wide with rapture as the two held hands in silence, Ryou resting his head against Marik's as they appreciated the beauty of it together. When the sun had cleared the horizon, Marik glanced over at Ryou and grinned.

"Your hair is still messy," he chuckled, running his fingers through Ryou's long, rumpled, white locks.

"Ah, well." Ryou shrugged dismissively, glowing at Marik with eyes of melted chocolate. A throaty chuckle from behind startled them both and made them turn around. Ryou blushed an even darker shade of red as he realized that they were being watched—and who was watching them.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were there," Marik apologized with a blush of his own.

"That's alright, it's not like the ship is mine," Seto said breezily as he stood, a little stiff after sitting there for hours, but he'd felt worse before. "We should be arriving soon, since the island is right out there," he commented as he approached, not even needing to point since the distant island was in clear view on the horizon. "Is anybody else awake?"

"I don't think so," Ryou answered, his face starting to return to a normal color. "Joey was snoring pretty loudly when we left, and Anzu and Yugi were still sleeping soundly."

"I suppose now wouldn't be too early to wake them up, would it?"

"Nah, we all went to bed pretty early last night, so they should be fine," Ryou replied.

"Alright, sounds good. I just think we should have some kind of plan for what we're going to do when we get to the island."

* * *

It had taken longer than Duke anticipated for him to explain all of the details of Dungeon Dice Monsters to Pegasus, and even longer than he anticipated for them to go through the potential of every die, the make-up of every booster pack, the plausibility of making it compatible with an adapted model of the Duel Arena. It took them a few days to draw up the contract after that, and by this time, the Duelist Kingdom Tournament was hours from starting.

"I would love to fund the launch of your game, Dukey-Boy." Pegasus sipped his wine before he continued. "It sounds like it's going to be a smashing success. There's just one little thing I need to know first, before we sign the contracts: Who invented the Duel Arena?"

"Noah Kaiba, of course," Duke answered automatically, and a little too quickly. The fact that Pegasus even asked that question made him feel nervous, but he refused to show it, maintaining his usual aura of casual confidence and cocky intellect.

"Come now, do you really think I buy that explanation?" He laughed, the sound light and almost scornful. "He couldn't explain a single thing about it to me when I asked! He clearly had no hand in making it. So, let's try this again, Duke." He stood, setting down his wineglass before strolling over to sit on the edge of the table and face the teen. "Who created the Duel Arena?"

"I… I can't tell you." Duke turned his head, looking off to the distance as Pegasus started to smile. So he knew. That was all he needed to know, because now that he knew that Duke knew, he could get the information out of him. It wouldn't take more than an hour.

* * *

"Attention, duelists! Please disembark in an orderly fashion."

"Pst, Anzu," Marik whispered suddenly nervous. "Do you think they'll be able to tell that we're stowaways?"

"Not if you chill out!" Anzu snapped. "Just relax and act like you have every right to be here, and they won't tell the difference."

Marik let out a breath and tried to do as she said, straightening up and walking with more confidence as he followed Ryou off the boat, Seto behind him, followed by Joey, Anzu, and Yugi. They stood on the docks, looking around nervously as they sized up their competition.

"Hey Yug, look! It's that guy who made fun o' your hair last night!" Joey exclaimed, pointing towards Rex Raptor. "Looks like he just slithered his way off the boat and is already lookin' to start some trouble. That slimeball, I'd _love_ to wipe that smirk off his face."

Weevil watched them from across the dock, smirking, and while Yugi actually felt tempted to retaliate—at least with a duel—he knew that he had bigger fish to fry than Weevil.

"Calm down, Joey. You can't afford to go barging into a fight that you're not prepared for," Seto said coolly, still taking measure of the other duelists and trying to pick out who the best opponents for him would be. It looked like there were plenty of people that he could beat easily, but he didn't see much honor in eliminating weaker duelists. Then again, he was starting with one star chip, thanks to his act of charity, and he couldn't afford to lose a single duel, let alone the whole tournament. Mokuba was counting on him to come home victorious, and he couldn't let his little brother down.

One of the black-suited security guards stepped up then, wearing a name tag that read "Kemo," and addressed the duelists on the pier: "Welcome, all duelists. Please—follow the stairs to meet your host!" He gestured to a long staircase built into the side of a hill, atop which rested a large, extravagant castle.

"That castle's gotta belong to Pegasus!" Yugi realized aloud, his eyes wide as he considered the home of the man who'd stolen his grandfather's soul.

"Then what're we waitin' for!" Joey exclaimed, charging forward towards the stairs, followed first by Seto, then by Yugi and Anzu, who walked side by side, with Marik and Ryou bringing up the rear, walking close by each other as they both felt overwhelmed by the island's vast wilderness. They could see thick forests, broad fields, sheer cliffs, intimidating mountains, rocky beaches—and who knew what else waited for them just out of sight?

As the duelists gathered before the castle, several acclaimed duelists were spotted, besides Seto himself: Weevil Underwood, the new regional champion; Rex Raptor, the who came in second place; Mako Tsunami, the third-place runner-up; Mai Kujaku, a professional duelist; "Bandit" Keith Howard, a runner-up in the last American regional tournament.

As they waited for the last duelists to gather, Seto overheard a conversation among some of the others duelists.

"Wow, these're all the best duelists in the world! But where's the world champion, Kaiba?" one boy asked his friend.

"Didn'tcha hear? Some kid beat 'im! On his own turf, too."

Seto stiffened as he continued to listen discretely.

"Are you serious? I thought _Kaiba_ was the best."

"He _was_ , but not anymore. _Seto's_ supposed to be the kid to beat _now_."

They either weren't that observant or hadn't done their research, because neither of them realized that the new champion in question was only ten feet away from them. His friends must have heard this, because Joey nudged the brunette smugly while Ryou smiled at him proudly, making Seto somewhat ennerved by this evidence of his notoriety. He didn't want to become a target; he'd prefer to choose his own opponents rather than be challenged by who knew how many foolishly over-confident children.

"Attention!" Kemo was addressing the duelists again, this time from the castle's balcony-one of them, anyways. "Please gather around. Your benevolent host is anxious to greet you all."

They all watched the balcony with varying degrees of nervousness, intention, admiration, and mistrust. Pegasus appeared, walking past a row of bowing lackeys as his golden Millennium Eye glittered in the fresh sunlight.

"Boy, would I like to get just five minutes alone with that guy…" Joey grumbled, making Seto chuckle, since it was clear from his tone that his five minutes would be quite violent indeed, should he ever get them. Pegasus watched the crowd, his face shadowed and somewhat sinister as he started to chuckle.

"Greetings, duelists!" His left eye was covered again as he spread his arms wide in a welcoming gesture. "I am Maximillion Pegasus! It is my great honor and pleasure to welcome you all to the Duelist Kingdom. You stand before me, the world's greatest duelists—but come tournament's end, only one shall be crowned King of Games!"

While he listened, Yugi looked down at the deck in his hand, the one that his grandfather had helped him to create.

"I implore you all to assemble your dueling decks with care; with creativity; _and_ with cunning! For this competition will test your skills like never before! To track your progress in the tournament, you've each been given a dueling glove. You've also been given two precious star chips. You must wager these star chips on each duel you compete in. To advance to the final level of competition for a chance at the three-million-dollar prize, you must win ten star chips! _Ten_ star chips will admit you into my castle, where you'll face me in one final duel!"

 _If Grandpa's here, I'd bet my dueling glove he's hidden away in that castle!_ Yugi thought, focused entirely on his purpose for being here. _But I'll never be able to get in there with all the guards around. We're just gonna have to win enough star chips to get inside._

"This will be a tournament unlike anything you have ever experienced! State-of-the-art dueling arenas cover this _entire_ island, and intriguing new dueling rules will be in effect! I could _tell_ you what these new rules are—but what fun would _that_ be! You'll discover them as you compete, or you won't last very long! Remember—play boldly; think strategically; and duel mercilessly! You have one full hour to prepare—both your cards and yourselves. When the skies light up with fireworks, the duels will begin!"

As the crowd of fifty or more duelists started cheering, Pegasus turned and left the balcony, thinking, _The duelists have arrived. Yugi has taken the bait. And the games are about to begin! Everything goes according to plan!_

"Croquette," he said, beckoning to his chief of security.

"Yes, Mr. Pegasus sir?" his lackey replied, coming alongside his employer.

"I need two of your men sent on a recon mission to Domino. Here's the address with a description of the target," Pegasus said, handing Croquette a piece of paper from the side table. "For now, they're _only_ supposed to observe and gather information: I'll give them direct orders when I need them to take action."

"Yes, sir. Your associates from KaibaCorp are standing by on video-chat in your private dining room."

"I see they don't quite trust me to carry out my part of the plan. Very well, I shall assure them as necessary. And the girl has been fed this morning, yes? We need to keep an eye on her, because if we lose her, this plan falls apart."

"Understood, Master Pegasus," Croquette replied promptly. "She has been fed and is confirmed to be secured with no means of escape."

"Excellent." The Millennium Eye glimmered behind the veil of hair that covered it. "I just love seeing a plan come together."

* * *

Seto had already struck out on his own, away from his friends. He didn't want to have to duel them, not unless it was in the tournament finals. They'd already agreed to as much on the ship that morning, but he also thought it unwise for so many of them to be traveling so closely together when they _all_ needed to win enough duels to be among the first four to win ten star chips. He shifted his backpack on his shoulders, hoping that it's precious cargo would, as he hoped, help him win the tournament in the long run. He pulled his locket out from under his shirt and opened it for a moment, looking down at the picture of his little brother.

_I'll make you proud, Mokuba. I promise._

Meanwhile, Yugi, Ryou, Joey, Anzu, and Marik were in a meadow not too far off from the docks, waiting for the tournament to start.

"Yugi, I don't know if I can win this thing," Joey said uncertainly, looking off in the direction Seto had gone in not too long ago. "Maybe it'd be best if I caught up with Seto and gave him his star chip back."

"He wouldn't have given it to you unless he really believed you had a shot at winning," Ryou assured. "If you really think you should give it back to him, I won't stop, but I think he'll manage fine without it."

"Yeah, besides, I promised Yugi I'd do everything I could to help him get his grandpa back, isn't that right, Yug?"

"That's right, Joey!" Yugi replied cheerfully, smiling up at his friend. "And with you helping me, there's no way we can lose!"

"You can do it!" Anzu enthused, despite that fact that she'd expressed doubts about Joey's dueling skills in the past. "You've just gotta steer clear of the more experienced duelists at first."

"Right, it's just a matter of working your way _up!_ " Ryou grinned at Joey, before glancing back at Marik, who seemed to be happy and at ease, despite his silence. Just then, fireworks started shooting up into the bright blue sky from the towers of the castle, making Marik gasp in shock as he stared up into the sky with round eyes. He'd never seen fireworks before.

"The fireworks! It's starting!" Anzu exclaimed excited. All over the island, other duelists took note of the signal, some feeling hesitant, some confident, some sneaky, as the Duelist Kingdom Tournament officially began.

"Let's do it!" Yugi shouted, receiving agreement from his friends, entirely ignorant of just what was in store for them.


	7. Captives

"No need to worry, gentlemen," Pegasus assured the Big Five over video conference. "The girl is secure here, and even if she were to escape my castle—which is highly unlikely—where would she go? This is an island populated by my employees and a few duelists. She's not going anywhere."

"Even so, do not take any risks with her," Johnson said with a scowl. "If we lose her, we lose control of KaibaCorp, and I'm sick of being bossed around by those Kaiba brats."

"People like Noah Kaiba don't _deserve_ to run a company," Leichter added, his expression unpleasant.

"I completely agree with you, good sirs," Pegasus said with a charming smile. "As soon as I receive everything you have concerning the Solid Vision technology and its most recent breakthroughs since we signed our deal, she'll be released into your custody immediately and control of the Kaiba Corporation will be yours."

"It's still being compiled. Once that's done, it will be transported to you immediately," Crump said, looking irritated that Pegasus had kidnapped Adina before they did. But, they were businessmen, and as such were accustomed to negotiating deals and getting what they want.

"Excellent!"

"You do realize, sir, that the program still needs development," Nezbitt pointed out, looking incredulous, as if he doubted how useful the technology would be to Pegasus as it was.

"I am well aware of that. Very soon, I will have both of its creators under my thumb, so you needn't worry about me. Now, if you'll excuse me, gentlemen, I have a tournament to run." With that, Pegasus hung up on them before they could say anything else. He rose from his chair, grinning cruelly. "This is just too easy."

* * *

"...She must be somewhere, though. Little girls don't just disappear into thin air, you know. They'll find your sister any minute, I'm sure."

Noah Kaiba remained catatonic in his wheelchair, staring into empty space. Whether or not he could hear the words of his nurse was anyone's guess. Would he remember them when he woke up? Did he feel any concern about his sister, or was his mind too absent for anything to register with him?

Deep within his soul, Noah Kaiba was struggling through an experience he could only describe as hellish. It felt like his very being had been torn asunder. He'd lost the part of him that reveled in the pain of others, the part of him that wished to emulate his father, the part of him that felt anger and hatred and aggression, the part of him that enjoyed violence. The part of him that would do anything to win.

Ah, but what did it mean to win? He'd clearly lost his duel with Seto, but his rivalry with Seto was far from over. The rules for the duel were clear and indisputable, but the rules for a rivalry were quite the opposite: vague, undefined, nebulous. He could still win.

At the moment, though, he was not thinking about Seto or victory. With his darker half, the half that hid his humanity, separated from himself, he was forced to deal with the pain and emotion and vulnerability that he'd suppressed for so long. He was forced to remember how his own father had hurt him, how he'd cried and begged for mercy, causing his father to teach him that only dogs begged. He was forced to admit that in the dark of the night, when he was alone and everything was still and silent, somewhere deep within he ached with loneliness. He was forced to admit the fact that he envied Seto.

Seto had friends and a little brother that loved him. Seto was smarter than him. Seto knew what he was doing with his life. Seto was respected by the people around him.

Noah wasn't respected, he was feared. He made people fear him because he didn't know how to make them love him. Deep down, he was just a small scared child that wanted to be loved. His father had beaten his lessons into him, molested and defiled him without regard for his son's pain. His mother had been distant and silent because she'd also been screwed up by Gozaburo's behavior. Adina was the only one who'd escaped their father's abuse, but her innocence and happiness had grated on Noah in the past, making him bitter and angry. Why was he the only one to suffer like this? Why couldn't he be happy like everyone else?

If he couldn't be happy, then he would make others suffer too—

That was when he was struck with more pain, the agony increasing as a visceral empathy was forced upon him. He felt all of the pain he'd ever inflicted on others, but he felt all of it at once.

No! Hurting others was not the answer… The pain began to ebb, and he could breathe easily again. Hurting others was not the answer.

* * *

"How are you today, my dear?"

Adina looked up from her coloring book and glared at the man who was holding her prisoner. "Let me go!" she demanded, her small fists clenched around her crayons in determination. "My brother won't let you get away with this!"

Pegasus chuckled before grinning down at the girl with a patronizing look. "I'm sorry, dear, but your big brother isn't doing much of anything these days."

Adina's eyes watered as she was reminded of her brother's state, and she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. Pegasus closed the door behind him as he entered the room completely, stepping forward to lift Adina into his arms. He handed her his handkerchief, and without a reason to protest, she accepted it and used it to dry her eyes.

"Don't cry, Adina," he purred, but his words didn't have any positive effect on her. "You won't be alone up here for much longer."

"Really?" she asked hopefully. "You're going to let me go?"

"Oh, of course not, silly goose!"

She wilted, her gaze dropping to the floor.

"Now, don't look like that! Chin up, sweetie pie. I'm going to be bringing you a little friend tomorrow, so you'll still be here, you just won't be alone." He set her down again and turned to leave, but now he'd caught her attention.

"Who else is going to be here?" she asked boldly. She was entitled to the information, after all, wasn't she.

"A little boy named Mokuba." Pegasus left Adina with an expression of dismay. She still remembered how she'd met Mokuba: on his birthday, he'd been at work with his brother at KaibaCorp. Seto'd had a meeting, so he brought his brother to the old shooting range in the basement that was no longer used, letting him sit there with paper and colored pencils for an hour while he was away. She'd gone down there to cry, upset because Noah wouldn't spend any time with her and she'd started to feel dreadfully lonely. Mokuba had heard her crying and befriended her. He'd taught her how to make paper airplanes.

That gave her an idea. She carefully ripped a page out of the coloring book and wrote an urgent message on it in crayon. She needed to warn Seto that Mokuba was going to be kidnapped too. She didn't want her friend to be taken by the bad men, even if she did feel lonely and wanted him here.

She tore out several more pages and wrote the same message, then she started folding them carefully, just as Mokuba had shown her. She got a few papercuts, but it was worth it. She flew them out the window, doing her best to make the go far. Some of them were lucky and were caught by a breeze, then carried over the woods until it was just a tiny dot. She watched the last one sail away for a few moments, then went back to her coloring book to make more.

* * *

"Thank you for taking us to the park, Mrs. Bakura." Mokuba beamed up at his surrogate mother.

"You're most welcome, Mokuba," she replied. She really didn't mind letting Mokuba stay with them for a few days. His sunny disposition was a blessing, and Amane needed the company besides. She did need to keep an eye on them, though. When Amane had told her mother about their kiss, Miya had told her that they should wait until they were older before they did that again. She could only hope that Seto had told Mokuba the same thing—and that the children listened to them.

"Mrs. Bakura, what are those men doing over there?" Mokuba pointed to a pair of tall, broad men wearing suits and dark sunglasses. They stood on the street corner, doing nothing as far as Mokuba could tell.

"Don't point, Mokuba," she said quickly, pushing his arm down. "It's rude."

"But why are they at a park if they don't have any kids with them," Mokuba asked, looking up at her curiously.

"That's not our business, okay?"

"Okay."

Mokuba turned his attention back to Amane, holding out a hand to her that she accepted with her own and a smile. He glanced up at Mrs. Bakura, waiting for a moment when she was looking away so that he could peck Amane on the cheek. She turned scarlet, but quickly returned the gesture before her mother was looking again.

Mrs. Bakura glanced down at the kids again before looking back at the crosswalk signal. Mokuba winked at Amane, making her giggle. Mokuba's sweet charm never failed to give her stomach butterflies.

* * *

"You're insane," Duke muttered, glaring at his captor with potent loathing.

"Mmm, I'm afraid not, Dukey-Boy," Pegasus crooned, looking down at the teenager, his Millennium Eye glittering. "Just a man with a plan, and you seem to have gotten yourself caught up in it." He let his eyes travel over Duke's lean form. He'd handcuffed his prisoner to the foot of the bed because it was the first opportunity that had presented itself. Now, Duke was kneeling on the bed because it was the most comfortable way for him to rest with his restraints. The position forced him into a submissive bow, however, that grated against the genius' sense of pride.

"I can't believe you," Duke growled, furious with himself for being tricked, furious with Pegasus for making Duke trust him. "How could you do this?"

Pegasus laughed, the sound cold and chilling. "You don't even know _what_ I'm doing, Dukey-Boy!" He chuckled again, pulling a blank card out of his pocket. "But, I suppose I can tell you, since you won't be around to stop me. I'll give you the short version, though. You see, after my lovely wife Cecilia died, I was devastated. I received this"—he lifted away his hair to fully reveal the Millennium Eye, making Duke's expression twist in disgust—"and suddenly had access to vast amounts of power I didn't know existed. I discovered a way to bring her back. I need, among other things, five souls. You, my boy, have volunteered yours." He began to stride closer to his prisoner.

"I have done no such thing!" Duke protested, throwing a hard kick in Pegasus' direction, catching him in the stomach and knocking him to the floor.

"Oh, that's it, I've had it with you!" The creator of Duel Monsters stood, rubbing his aching backside as he continued, "I _was_ going to keep you around for a bit so that you could work on a project for me, but I don't think it's worth it. You're much more useful to me this way." Pegasus lifted his hair away again to reveal his golden eye and aim it at Duke. A bright flash of light, and a few moments later, the creator of Dungeon Dice Monsters fell limp and soulless on the bed. The card in Pegasus' hand was no longer bank, for it now contained an image of the shocked teenager, his eyes wide with betrayal.

"Well, that takes care of that," Pegasus said aloud to nobody but himself. He straightened his jacket and smoothed back his hair before turning and exiting the guest room he'd given to his now-soulless guest.

As he stalked down the hallway, he tucked the card into the inner pocket of his coat.

"One down, four to go."


	8. Halfway

"Things should be wrapping up pretty soon here," Kenji Bakura said cheerfully. "I'll be home in less than a month, for sure. Speaking of home, how are things going with just you and the little ones?"

"Well, since Marik decided to sneak off with his friends, I had to get someone to cover my shift tonight, but I already have tomorrow night off, which is good. Mokuba's on the phone with his brother now. Have you talked to Ryou?"

"Yes, earlier today we talked after he won his first duel. He assured me that he and Marik were fine and that they were having fun."

"That's good," she said, sounding a little relieved and a little pleased.

While Mrs. Bakura spoke with her husband on her cell that evening, Mokuba spoke to his brother in a different room.

"How was your day, Mokuba?" Seto's voice came clearly through the Bakura's home phone to the child's ear.

"It was great!" He said excitedly, glad to hear his brother's voice. "We went to the park and played games and had pizza for dinner!"

"That sounds like fun. I'm glad you're doing well."

"Have you won any duels yet?"

"Of course I have! I already have five star chips, which means that I'm halfway to landing myself a spot in the finals."

"Cool! I knew you could do it, bro! I bet you're going to win the whole tournament! Of course, Amane is betting on Ryou winning, but he's her brother, so that's okay."

"Are you using the term betting literally or figuratively?" Seto asked suspiciously.

"Well…"

"What did you two bet?" Seto asked sternly.

"We only bet Duel Monsters cards, not money!" Mokuba answered quickly. "She's working on this really cool fairy/spirit deck, and I had a card she wanted, so—"

"Okay, okay, I believe you," Seto said with a sigh. "Just don't make a habit of it, okay?"

"Okay, I won't!"

"How are Amane and her mother?"

"They're doing well." Mokuba glanced over at Amane and smiled, tempted to kiss her blushing cheek again. "Amane taught me how to braid her hair today."

"That's… cool." Seto honestly didn't know how to respond to that. Then again, hair braiding was a fairly innocent activity. There were a lot of things that were much worse than that for his brother to be doing, so he decided not to let it worry him. "You're behaving well, right?"

"Yes, Seto, I'm on my best behavior," Mokuba assured as Amane snuggled up against his side.

"You're saying please and thank you and all that good stuff?"

"Yes, I am, don't worry about me."

"Good, because if Mrs. Bakura tells me otherwise, then we're going to have a serious problem, won't we?" Seto hadn't actually needed to punish Mokuba for bad behavior in awhile—not since he'd been too young to know any better. He couldn't help but wonder if was Mokuba displaying early maturity due to their circumstances, if it was a result of Seto's good teaching, or if Mokuba was just so sneaky that Seto simply hadn't caught him doing anything bad.

"She won't have anything bad to say about me. She called me a little angel." Mokuba beamed at the memory of those kind words.

"Good." Seto was relieved to hear that.

"Tell me about the people you dueled," Mokuba asked suddenly, still intrigued about the Duelist Kingdom tournament.

"One of them was the American regional champion," Seto explained. "He used a machine-based deck and wore this stupid American flag bandanna. I think he was cheating, but I still won, so it didn't really matter. I won two star chips from him, but I didn't eliminate him, because he didn't wager everything he had."

"He was cheating and you _still_ beat him? Cool!"

"Yeah, I guess it was pretty cool," Seto said with a smirk.

"Who else did you duel?"

"Oh, nobody important," he answered calmly. "It's getting late, though, and it's time for you to go to bed."

Mokuba haggled with Seto over what time he should be going to bed for a solid five minutes before they finally said their goodnights and hung up.

"You did well today, Seto," Seth praised gently as his spirit appeared sitting beside Seto on the ground. "I'm proud of you." There had been moments in his two duels where Seth advised a move that contradicted Seto's own intuition, and while he'd hesitated and doubted, he'd listened to the ancient pharaoh's counsel with good results.

Seto felt uncomfortable receiving his praise, but he murmured his thanks just the same. He slouched against the tree behind him, trying to get comfortable so that he could sleep. Something was bothering him, though, and Seth knew exactly what it was.

"That 'ghost' we dueled," Seto said, opening his eyes again to look at Seth. "Was it really…?"

"It was a malevolent spirit, but that's all I can tell you," Seth answered regretfully. "I don't know if it was really Noah or not."

Seto huffed a sigh of irritation. "Mind-crushing him was supposed to fix him, so why would he suddenly have an 'evil half' that wants to duel me again? It doesn't make any sense. It was probably just an evil ghost or something like that." That's what he wanted to believe. It would be so much easier if there weren't consequences for him defeating Ghost Kaiba in a duel.

"I wish I could be sure about it either way," Seth sighed, sitting cross-legged with his back straight in contrast to Seto's slouched position. "But we need to consider the repercussions if he was telling the truth."

"Well, he said that he was Noah's evil half that had been banished from his soul by the Mind Crush," Seto recounted, the act of saying it aloud helping him to analyze the information. "We defeated him, so he would have been sent to the Shadow Realm, right?"

"I would think so, but it wasn't a Shadow Game."

"So you're saying he might still be around?"

"I'm saying that I don't think he remained as a ghost. Either he went to the Shadow Realm and is now tied there permanently, or…"

"Or…?"

"Or he went back to Noah," Seth finished. "I've never encountered anything like this before. I wish I could be more helpful."

"I guess there's no point in worrying about it," Seto grumbled, trying to push the thought out of his mind. "At least not now, while we're in the middle of a tournament." He picked up his cell phone again and turned it off to preserve the battery, then put it in the pocket of his long purple coat. "We have more pressing matters at hand: I have to win five more star-chips tomorrow so that I can enter the finals and win the prize money."

"And free Yugi's grandpa," Seth reminded him gently. "If you do get the chance to duel Pegasus at the end of the finals, you need to duel for him too."

"Yes, I know, I intended to," Seto assured sleepily, eyes closing as he crossed his arms over his chest. "Now let me get some sleep."

* * *

"Thank you so much for sharing your food with us!" Yugi exclaimed, smiling widely at the professional duelist.

"Don't mention it," Mai assured as she put her arms behind her in the grass and leaned on her hands. "You've got to be prepared for these kind of things, you know." She glanced over at Anzu and gave her a nudge. "So, what are you doing here? You're not a duelist, are you?"

"I play the game, but I'm not here to compete," Anzu explained as she unwrapped a granola bar. "I'm just here to cheer on my friends!"

"Really? All two of them?" Mai teased. That actually drew Joey's attention away from his food for a moment.

"Our other friends are on the island too, they just wanted to spread out so that there'd be plenty of space for us to do our own dueling without bumping into each other all the time. Seto went off on his own, and after Ryou beat Mako Tsunami, he and Marik went off on their own." He took another large bite of food. "What about you? I don't see you with any friends."

Mai looked startled at that and started to sit up.

"Joey! Don't be so rude," Anzu chastised, looking annoyed. "And don't talk with food in your mouth!"

"Besides, we're her friends now," Yugi added generously, looking up at the blond woman with a grin. "Right Mai?"

"Friends," she mused for a moment, tasting the word like one would taste an unfamiliar dish. "That sounds nice, but I don't need anybody. I'm fine on my own. I've dueled for myself all along, and I don't need anybody to hold me back."

"I bet your life gets pretty lonely when you're traveling to tournaments all the time," Joey accused. "Don't you ever wish you could settle down somewhere?"

"No, I don't," she retorted indignantly with a swing of her curly ponytail. She pushed herself up from the ground as she started to stand and took a few steps towards the woods. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be back in a few minutes." When she was gone, Anzu whacked Joey on the arm.

"Hey, what was that for?" he protested, confused.

"That's for being rude to her! We seriously need to teach you some manners."

"I have plenty o' manners!" Joey puffed out his chest as he bragged. "I just use them on special occasions."

Anzu just rolled her eyes and said, "You're lucky there aren't any rules in the tournament about common courtesy, or you would've been disqualified by now."

Yugi chuckled at that. "It wouldn't really be fair for them to have those kinds of rules, though, since this is a Duel Monsters Tournament."

The three friends continued to joke and laugh, feeling safe in their prospects: both Joey and Yugi had earned five star-chips in their duels today, and while they didn't know how Ryou and Seto had fared at the end of the day, they felt confident that they would be joining their friends at Pegasus' castle tomorrow.

Meanwhile, Mai stood near the sea cliff, looking out over the ocean as she reminded herself why she needed to be alone, why she couldn't let herself get wrangled into their nonsense about friendship and support, why she couldn't—

A thick, meaty hand clamped down over her mouth, cutting her thoughts short. She struggled as she was dragged back into the trees, unable to cry for help.

* * *

Ryou and Marik sat side by side as they gazed into the pond's reflections of the stars and the tree tops. The new moon was invisible, as it tended to be, so the night was incredibly dark. They were deep in the woods in an isolated area, and Ryou was feeling bold. He released Marik's hand as he stood and shed his white sweater.

"I'm going for a swim," he announced as he dropped his sweater onto the sleeping bag they'd brought to share. Marik looked up at him with curious eyes.

"Won't the water be cold?" he asked hesitantly, glancing down into the rippling river. The water was black like the sky, giving no hint as to its true depth. Ryou shrugged as he started to unbutton his aqua shirt.

"It'll feel good. Besides, it's summer, it's hot, and this is the closest thing to a shower I'm probably going to get until we're inside Pegasus' castle—assuming we get in." Ryou folded his shirt and placed it on top of his sweater. "Aren't you going to join me?" He started to pull his hair back into a low bun with a hair elastic he'd had around his wrist. His long hair was incredibly bothersome when he went swimming unless he tied it back.

"I-I've never gone swimming before," Marik admitted bashfully, his blush unseen in the darkness.

"It's easy, and the river's not too deep," Ryou said encouragingly as he pushed his jeans down. "I'll teach you how. It's easy."

"Okay." Marik complied, sounding a little uncertain, but he stood and started to undress as well. After all, he told himself, it was dark enough that Ryou couldn't possibly see the scars on his back. Even if he felt them, he wouldn't be able to tell that they were symbols. Only blind people had such a developed sense of touch as to read with their fingers.

It was getting harder and harder to keep Ryou from seeing his back, and while Ryou respected Marik's claim to shyness, he was also puzzled and hurt and impatient in his own ways. He tended to keep these feelings to himself and work through them until he was patient and positive again, but Marik could sense that they were there, and he regretted hurting Ryou like that.

As he finished undressing and folded his own clothes, he sighed imperceptibly. He couldn't risk Ryou seeing his back, though. He needed to keep the secrets of the pharaohs safe, and everything that Ryou saw and heard, the Spirit of the Ring also saw and heard. If Ryou saw his scars, the Soul-Stealer would see them too and understand them better than anyone else. When Ishizu had warned him not to get too close to Dr. Bakura's son, she must have known this would happen. When she'd told him that it would be hard to keep his secrets, she must have known this would be his predicament. He was grateful that he'd had the warning, even though it hadn't stopped this from happening.

"Come on."

Ryou took Marik's hands in his own and led him into the water. Marik gasped at the temperature as his first foot was immersed in the water, and he tried to pull back, but Ryou tugged him forward so that both feet splashed into the stream.

"It'll only take a minute to adjust to the water," the white-haired teen assured before pressing his lips to one of Marik's cheeks, then the other. He was standing in front of Marik now, both hands joined as he stepped backwards, careful not to slip on the silt-covered stones of the riverbed.

With each step he took backwards, Marik took a step forwards, almost like a dance. Soon enough, both naked boys were nearing the middle of the river, the water lapping at their waists. That was when Ryou kissed Marik properly, and Marik closed his eyes to enjoy it. Ryou released Marik's hands and found the Egyptian's hips in the water, gently pulling him a step or two closer. Marik's arms wrapped around Ryou, his hands joining together and resting on the curve of Ryou's small ass. As the kiss deepened and their tongues started to touch and tease, one hand slid from Marik's hip to the center of his lower back. Marik gasped sharply as Ryou's other hand wrapped around his member, his hold firm.

"Please, Marik," Ryou whispered as his thumb brushed across his partner's tip, making his boyfriend moan. There was something pleading in his eyes, something raspy in his voice, something demanding in the unyielding pressure of his hands.

"I-I don't know," he stammered, lavender eyes narrowing as his eyebrows drew together and his gaze fell to the water's surface. A low growl sounded from Ryou's throat, making Marik's head snap up. Ryou was no longer in his arms, but a horny, pissed off spirit. With reflexes too fast for Marik to comprehend, the evil spirit shoved Marik into deeper waters, causing him to submerge. He gasped in shock and inhaled a mouthful of cold water. The Spirit of the Millennium Ring seized Marik by the hair and yanked him up into the open air. Marik spluttered as he coughed up water and sought to fill his lungs with air. When he was almost breathing again, the spirit slammed Marik's back against a large stone protruding from the water. A furious spirit glared at the gasping teen, their faces inches apart.

"You _will_ give this to me," the spirit commanded, pressing himself close enough to Marik to make his victim squirm. "Give this to me, or Yadonushi will suffer for it."

 _Yadonushi_. He could only be referring to Ryou. As Marik stared into those menacing scarlet eyes, he experienced a strange moment of complete mental clarity: this was his purpose here. He was supposed to come to Japan to give Seto the Millennium Rod, to provide them with the pharaohs secrets when the time came, and to protect Ryou from the evil spirit that would otherwise harm him. Ryou still believed the evil spirit was gone, just like all of their friends did. Perhaps it was better this way, to protect him from the pain and the distress that knowing the truth would cause him.

"What is your name?"

The spirit started at Marik's question, blinking in confusion.

"You do have a name, don't you?"

"If you must call me something, call me Bakura," the evil spirit snarled before grabbing Marik by the arm and dragging him onto the riverbank as Marik winced and stumbled after him. "Unlike my host, I find the idea of doing it in the water rather distasteful."

He contemplated Marik for a moment as if trying to decided what would be best to do with him—or _to_ him. He placed his hands on those bronze shoulders and shoved the teen down to his knees. He wrapped those fair locks of hair around his fingers for a secure hold and forced Marik's mouth open with his other hand. Marik wasn't fighting him, wasn't protesting or making much sound at all. He'd squeaked with pain when his knees hit the hard ground, but he'd otherwise remained silent. It wasn't what Bakura had expected, but if he remained fairly quiet, they wouldn't have a problem.

"It seems my host's little friend is just as meek and spineless as he is," the spirit muttered as he forced himself inside Marik's mouth and throat. He dropped his head back as pleasure flooded his senses and hands caressed the backs of his thighs. Both pale hands were now tangled into the platinum blond hair as lavender eyes slowly closed.

* * *

Mokuba was sleeping in Ryou's room across the hall from Amane. The soft sound of light breathing was the only sound in the darkened room not long after midnight. Across the street in a parked car, Pegasus' two grunts were watching the Bakura home, trying not to fall asleep. A cell phone rang.

"Yes, Mr. Pegasus, sir?"

"Get the boy as quietly as you can and bring him here immediately."

"Yes sir, right away."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While writing this chapter, I was tempted to take a page out of LittleKuriboh's book and say, "Meanwhile, thousands of miles away," every time I made a transition.


	9. Zombies

"Don't you think Mai's been gone for a long time?" Joey commented suddenly. He stood up and started to walk into the underbrush, calling her name.

"Uh, Joey, you might not want to do that," Anzu said, well aware that Joey might see something he shouldn't.

"Wait did you hear that?" Joey said and froze, his ears perked like a golden retriever.

"I didn't hear anything," Yugi said, confused.

"Sh!"

Anzu and Yugi remained silent for a few moments as Joey listened carefully. Then their blond friend suddenly took off into the woods.

"Hey Joey, wait up!" they called as they dashed after their friend, but Joey didn't wait. He'd heard a cry for help, he was sure of it. He broke through the bushes into a clearing where he saw a Duel Arena, but he wasn't paying attention to that right now. He was focused on the huge man molesting Mai, the way he gripped her arm so tightly

"Hey, why don'tchya pick on somebody your own size, ya giant freak!"

The man looked up and released Mai just before Joey barreled into him, knocking them both off-balance, though not quite off their feet. Joey recovered first and punch the other in the face good and hard, then quickly darted out of range, taking Mai's hand and tugging her further away from the man who'd been molesting her. That was when Joey turned his attention to her and realized that she looked absolutely terrified and was fighting tears.

"Didn't anybody ever tell you not to make a lady cry!" Joey shouted angrily at the freak, who was still recovering from Joey's punch. He wasn't used to people retaliating with physical violence.

"Are you okay Mai?" he asked gently, turning his attention to the duelist at his side. Mai threw her arms around Joey as she hugged him tightly, surprising him and making him blush as he returned the embrace.

"Joey, you saved me!" she cried, blinking back her tears as Joey realized that she was trembling in his arms. "Thank you, thank you!"

Anzu and Yugi burst onto the scene just then.

"Who's he?" Anzu asked, eying Mai's assailant with suspicion.

"My name is PaniK, and I'm an eliminator."

"An eliminator," Yugi repeated in wonder. "What's that?"

"Check out her duelist's glove. Not a star-chip left."

"But that would mean she's been disqualified," Anzu said, unable to comprehend that the seasoned successful duelist might have lost.

"I root out all the dueling filth on this island and dispose of it," PaniK continued, crossing his arms smugly. "Just like Pegasus pays me to do."

"I guess that makes you a garbage man," Joey retorted disdainfully, holding Mai in a reassuring embrace as she clung to him. She released him now, though, pulling back and turning to face the others.

"So, you're out, Mai?" Yugi asked in shock.

"I am," she answered regretfully starting to regain her composure. "It all happened so fast. The way PaniK duels, I just… lost it."

She hung her head, ashamed of losing the eight star-chips she'd earned her first day of the tournament. She flicked her warm violet gaze back to Joey, looking almost guilty. Joey knew that she was omitting the part where PaniK had assaulted her.

"This isn't right," Yugi said softly, his inner sense of justice rebelling against the way his new friend had been treated.

"Ha! She was one of my easiest victims yet!" PaniK laughed maniacally, a crazed look in his eye that made Joey hate the man all the more.

"You creep!" Joey shouted, his fists balled at his sides as he started to approach the eliminator. "There's no excuse for—"

"Calm down, Joey," Mai interrupted as she grabbed his arm, afraid that he would say what he'd seen. Joey looked back at her for a moment, starting to understand. She seemed too ashamed to speak of the assault aloud, which reminded Joey of another duelist he knew well. Fine, he wasn't going to say anything if she didn't want him to. After keeping Seto's secrets for so long, he'd actually gotten good at keeping things to himself. "I know how you feel but that guy's more than twice your size!"

"I can take 'im!" Joey growled, glaring at PaniK again.

"No, Joey, fists aren't the answer," Yugi said calmly as he stepped forward. "Violence won't solve anything. I've dealt with a lot of bullies in my life, and I'm afraid there's only one way to deal with them."

The impulsive blond looked down at his friend as the shorter teen approached PaniK, starting to feel a bit ashamed as well as confused. "Whaddaya mean?"

"You have to stand up to them!" Yugi looked up at the much larger man, looking determined.

"But Yugi—" Mai tried to stop him, not wanting him to be knocked out too, but Yugi continued speaking anyways, his voice taking on a new quality. Joey and Anzu exchanged a glance: that was the Pharaoh speaking, not just Yugi anymore.

"Now—let's see you try your intimidation tactics against _me_ , Panik. I don't scare easy, especially when I'm standing up for my friends! So let's duel!"(1)

* * *

The morning was peaceful as Marik and Ryou slept cuddled together in their sleeping-bag. Ryou's cell phone rang, waking up its owner with its urgent, metallic ringing. Ryou rubbed his eyes as he reached for his phone, finding it with his fingers after a few moments. He yawned and lifted the phone to his ear as he sat up on his elbows.

"Hi Mom, what's up?" he said.

"Ryou," she said, but the rest of her words were obscured by static.

"Mom, I can't hear you," he said loudly, worried by his mother's panicked tone. He could hear her try to speak to him again, but while he heard snippets of her voice, he couldn't make out a single word. "Mom, the connection's really bad. I'll try calling you later, okay?" He heard more static, but the sound was cut off by a beeping noise. He lowered his phone and sighed as he looked at the screen. The call had been dropped.

"What's going on?" Marik asked as he stretched his arms, Ryou's voice having woken him.

"My mom called me," Ryou explained. "She was trying to say something, but the connection was really bad. I'll have to try calling her later from a higher point on the island. Don't let me forget, okay?"

"I won't," Marik assured with a small smile. Ryou seemed pleasant this morning, which probably meant that Bakura had altered his memories of last night. Marik wasn't keen on upsetting Ryou, who needed to focus on his duels so that he could enter the castle, so he decided to keep his mouth shut about what had happened last night. He watched the white-haired teen as he searched for his shirt and jeans, dressing quickly as Marik crawled out of bed and pulled his pants back on as well. He'd redressed before sleeping, only leaving off his sleeveless hoodie and his cargo pants for comfort. They packed up their things quickly and took off in search of another duelist. When they came to a cave, it was Ryou's idea to enter it, although Marik was understandably hesitant.

"With the field advantage that my monsters will get in a cave, though, I'm sure to win my next duel!" Ryou had enthused. In the end, it was a hug and a kiss that had persuaded Marik to enter the cavern. They passed coffins, skulls, and other macabre imagery before they found a Duel Arena—and their next opponent.

"Oi, Bonz," the orange-haired Australian said to the shortest of the three goons the two teens had encountered. "Looks like we've got ourselves a challenger."

"You don't stand a ghost of a chance in a duel against me," Bonz bragged as he stepped up to one side of the Duel Arena, Ryou doing the same as a sly smile crossed his face.

"If you're so confident, then how about we raise the stakes: winner takes all?" Ryou proposed, making Bonz cringe.

"Not likely," the Australian scoffed.

"You think we're dumb enough to risk all five star-chips?" the tallest of them said, his hair dark and spiked upwards like grass.

"Your cowardice comes as no surprise, considering that you're hiding here in the dark waiting for unsuspecting duelists to wander their way in. But let me remind you that the finals start soon, and you're running out of time."

Ryou had already taken on a different tone and posture, a hand on his hip as he fixed his opponent with a look of confidence. This did not disturb Marik, who had seen this same behavior yesterday. Some duelists focused entirely on acquiring the best cards and memorizing every possible combination they might use in battle. Others invested their energy in creative ways to cheat in order to ensure their victory. Once Ryou had assembled an excellent deck and side deck, he'd focused on something else entirely. He understood that psychology was half the game, and his ability to manipulate his opponent was his secret weapon. He never dueled like that when they were dueling for fun back home, but this was a tournament, so he was going to duel using every skill he had.

"He's right," the tall one agreed.

"I have stated my case clearly, and if you are wise, you will duel me," Ryou said calmly with an air of certainty. The duel hadn't even started yet, and he was already working his subtle wiles on them. "The winner will advance to the Duelist Kingdom Tournament."

"I accept your challenge," Bonz said confidently, stepping into the Duel Arena as Ryou did the same. "If you were dumb enough to walk into my trap and challenge me, then I doubt you're very much of a duelist anyways."

Ryou glanced over his shoulder at Marik and winked as the Egyptian smiled confidently back at him. He turned toward his opponent again, thinking to himself, _Accepting my challenge was your first mistake. And once I'm through with you, it will be your last in this tournament._

"If you want my star-chips, you'll have to be prepared for anything," Ryou said mysteriously as he shuffled his deck. "Time to begin our duel, so get ready." They both drew their starting hands and Ryou drew a sixth card, wordlessly claiming the first turn as his. That was a part of his psychological strategy: by going first without asking for preference or tossing a coin, he was subtly asserting his will over the other. "Are you aware of the legend of this crypt?" He quirked an eyebrow at them as he asked the question that was meant to draw attention to their own ignorance.

"What legend?" Bonz asked hesitantly, looking guarded as he drew back a bit.

"Listen." An order, not a request. "This very mausoleum is haunted by the ghost of a knight who lost his head in battle." He spoke low, his tone ominous and smooth. It made Marik shiver as he moved to stand to the side of the Duel Arena where he would get a better view of the duel.

"What?" Bonz was starting to get spooked.

"When the clock strikes midnight," Ryou continued, laying one monster in attack mode as a mysterious purple smog shrouded the field of the Duel Arena, "He rises up from his grave in search of his missing head." You could tell from his expression that he enjoyed telling this ghost story very much.

"I-I don't believe you," Bonz stammered, failing to convince anyone of his words. Then the shorter duelist shrieked as Ryou's monster burst from the graveyard playing field of the Duel Arena, lunging up out of the earth, spraying particles of dirt toward Bonz. While the zombie duelist and his goons were freaked out, Ryou couldn't help but chuckle to himself.

"You're face is scarier than that Duel Monster's card, Bonz!" the taller grunt scoffed.

"Hey, I didn't see it comin'!" Bonz defended, trying to protect his dignity.

"Alright, I'll play one card face-down," Ryou continued, doing so as he kept a steady gaze fixed on his opponent. "I'm afraid the worst is yet to come."

"Ah!" This guy's creeping me out. I'll show him!" Bonz said, looking nervous.

Ryou smirked a little, glad to have an opponent who was so easily off-put. Now that Bonz was unsettled and embarrassed, he'd probably make a foolish mistake, one that Ryou could easily exploit.

"Now I'll take out Snake-Hair The Sorceress!" he declared, the monster materializing in the Duel Arena once he lay down the card in attack mode. "She'll bury your knight in no time. Snake-Hair, destroy his Headless Knight with your stone blizzard attack!"

The sorceress attacked and Ryou's knight shattered in a burst of bright pixels. Bonz chuckled as he watched his opponent's life-points drop slightly.

"So, it looks like your knight just lost a lot more than his head." He crossed his arms with a smug expression.

"Wrong. I assure you that you haven't seen the last of my Headless Knight so observe and learn." Ryou drew a card as he started his turn, then smiled to himself. "I reveal my face-down card: Shallow Grave. This magic card allows me to revive one monster from my graveyard, and place it back on the field in defense mode. So welcome back my Headless Knight." Ryou removed the card from his graveyard and placed it back on his field. The Headless Knight reappeared emerging from a coffin, its stats higher than before.

"Look out Bonzie, the headless guy came back from the grave!" the tall one warned.

"Wake up, Zygor," the Australian grunt retorted. "Snake-Hair's still got more attack points than that flimsy knight."

"Oh yeah," Zygor replied. "You got a point there, Sid."

"This monster may be too weak," Ryou continued after rolling his eyes at them. "But watch as I sacrifice my Headless Knight in order to summon a creature stronger than your Snake-Hair. Rise up my Earl of Demise!" He had been adjusting his cards as he spoke and now lay down the card for his new monster. It appeared with a flash of purple light, looking like a gruesome, half-rotten corpse. It was considerably stronger than the Snake-Hair Sorceress.

"Oh no, my moster's a goner!" Bonz looked frightened, realizing now that he shouldn't have let himself be talked into betting all of his star-chips.

"And now, Earl of Demise attack with your sword of peril!"

"Ah, no! Snake-Hair!" Bonz's cry was futile, however, for his monster was cut down by the earl. Ryou started to chuckle, and Marik felt another shiver down his spine as he looked at his lover with concern. Was the Spirit of the Millennium Ring doing it again? Was he pretending to be his host? Or perhaps he was influencing his behavior? This was so unlike the Ryou that Marik had grown to love in the past few months, and it was unsettling to know that his closest friend had a dark side that could remain hidden for so long.

"Have you amateurs had enough punishment yet?" Ryou asked condescendingly, a sly grin altering his features.

"We'll see which one of us is an amateur when I do this!" Bonz drew a card and declared, "I summon Dragon Zombie! Now I'll unearth my Magic Burial card." He threw both cards down and as the magic card was activated, Snake-Hair Sorceress returned to the field. "Look familiar? This magic card costs me 800 life-points, but since it brings Snake-Hair back from the grave, it's a price I'm willing to pay, especially once I activate my Polymerization card." He threw down another card from his hand. "It fuses my two monsters together, creating a creature so terrifying it will send shivers down your spine!" As the monsters fused together, Bonz looked triumphant. "Behold! The Great Mammoth of Goldfine! You are finished!" He plucked yet another card from his hand and continued, "Since fusion monsters have to wait one turn before attacking, I'll place one card face-down and I'll wait for you to make your next move. Are you gonna draw, or what?" He demanded impatiently.

"With pleasure," Ryou replied coolly, taking the card off the top of his deck.

"I'm playing a trap card!" Bonz announced suddenly as Ryou looked at his card. "Skull Invitation! Now every time a card is sent to the card graveyard, my Skull Invitation card will severely damage your life-points! So when my Great Mammoth of Goldfine destroys your Earl of Demise in my next turn, you will lose 300 extra life-points automatically! Ha! Talk about having one foot in the grave. You are finished, bud!"

Ryou started to laugh, and Bonz became confused again.

"Your trap card is meaningless to me, and to prove it, I'll send every card in my hand to the card graveyard." Marik gasped in surprise as Ryou placed his entire hand in the graveyard.

"What?" Bonz still didn't understand.

"He must be mad as a hatter to make that move," Sid scorned, one hand on his hip. "You can't lose, Bonzie!"

"Yeah," Bonz agreed, trying not to let himself be unbalanced by his opponent yet again. "Skull Invitation, do your dirty work!" Ryou lifted an arm to shield himself as the magic of Skull Invitation swirled around him. He grunted in pain as the realistic hologram attacked him directly.

"That's right!" Zygor cheered. "Squeeze the life-points right outta him!"

Ryou started laughing again though as he dropped his arm and shot his opponent another smirk.

" _Now_ what's so funny?" Bonz demanded.

"You'll soon find out," Ryou answered ominously. "You were so distracted by the hopeless thought of winning my star-chips and advancing to the finals, you failed to notice that I played a magic card." he activated the card, and as it revealed itself to Bonz, the zombie duelist gasp in horror.

"Oh no!"

"It's called Spiritualistic Medium," Ryou explained. "And it provides my Earl of Demise with an additional 500 attack points for every card destroyed during my turn."

"It can't!" his short opponent denied.

"Oh, it can, and if you remember correctly, I destroyed four of my own cards, giving my monster 2,000 more attack points. Go, my spirits," he ordered, arm extended as he felt a bit of a thrill at being able to command ghosts. "And add your power to my Earl of Demise!"

"Ah! It's grown too powerful!" Bonz cried as the Earl of Demise was given 4,000 attack points.

"Yes! Earl of Demise, destroy his mammoth!" The earl leapt forward and sliced his mammoth in half, laying waste to Bonz's life-points in the process.

"My… life-points…" Bonz was stunned, his eyes wide as he saw his own life-point counter drop to zero.

"I'm disappointed that this duel had to end so soon. I was really quite enjoying it." Ryou sighed a little as he started to look and sound more like his normal self. He shuffled his cards back together and slid his deck into its case as he stepped down from the Duel Arena. "Now you owe me your star-chips."

"No way, I'm not getting kicked out of this tournament!" Bonz cried suddenly, taking off at breakneck speed with his buddies hot on his heels.

"Wait, where are you going?!" Ryou exclaimed, running after them with Marik at his side.

"Good duel," the Egyptian praised as they ran.

"Thanks," Ryou panted with a faint smile. "Now come on, let's catch them and get my star-chips!"

* * *

Seto woke later that morning than he'd intended, but once he was up, he immediately began his search for another duelist to challenge. His search came to a halt, however, when he encountered a paper airplane on the ground. It was made of that thin beige paper used in cheap children's coloring books, and maybe that piqued his curiosity enough for him to pick it up and notice that it had been written on instead of colored on. He unfolded it carefully, and as he read the message, the blood drained from his face:

"My name is Adina Kaiba. Pegasus stole me and he is going to steal Mokuba too. Please get help!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Much of this dialogue was quoted directly from the English dubbed episode. For details on their duel, watch episodes 14 and 15 of Season 1.
> 
> (2) Most of this duel dialogue is adapted/quoted from Season 2, Episode 30 of the English dub.


	10. Caves

"I think they're long gone," Ryou said with a sigh as he and Marik stopped to catch their breath. He was disappointed: it wasn't fair of them to withhold their star-chips from Ryou after he beat them in a fair duel.

"Look, over there!" Marik said suddenly, pointing to a pair of gold sparkles on the floor several yards in front of them. He approached them, Ryou following somewhat reluctantly, and picked them up, turning to the other with a triumphant smile.

"Looks like they dropped a couple of star-chips." He held them out and dropped them into Ryou's open palm. As the shorter teen secured the star-chips in his dueling glove, Marik watched him with sad eyes. "We might be able to find an official when we get out of this cave. If we tell them that your star-chips were stolen, surely they could do something about it."

"No, it's alright," Ryou replied with a shake of his head and a weak smile. "I'll just win another duel to get the last few star-chips. It's less trouble than trying to get my star-chips from Bonz."

Marik pulled Ryou into a tight hug, the other sighing a little and nuzzling against his companion.

"Don't let it get you down, okay?" the Egyptian teen murmured, receiving a nod from the other. Marik kissed the top of Ryou's head, sending warmth through his lover's body all the way down to his toes. As Ryou shifted his feet to stand closer to Marik, he felt one of his feet sink into the ground and a strange clicking noise.

"What was that?" Marik asked as he lifted his head to look around. Then they heard a rumbling off in the distance and looked back the way they'd come. A giant boulder was just starting to come into view as it rolled their way. The two panicked and released each other as they started to run down the tunnel, hoping to outrun it somehow.

"Where did that thing come from?" Marik was as surprised as Ryou.

"I think I activated a trap," Ryou answered in embarrassment. He'd looked at Marik as he answered, which might have been a bad idea, because right after he finished speaking, he stepped on his own shoelace and tripped. Marik shouted his name as the other teen was crushed under the boulder. Marik forced himself to stop, outraged at this turn of events and waited for the boulder to catch up to him. He threw a fist at it, thinking that it would be futile, but his fist dented the boulder and made it pop in a loud explosion of air. Blinking in surprise, Marik looked down and saw the shreds of balloon and the round speaker.

"It was _fake_?"

Marik looked up and saw Ryou push himself up off the floor, dusting off his hands as he approached the other. Marik threw himself at Ryou in another hug, making Ryou laugh light-heartedly.

"I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Me too." Ryou kissed Marik's cheek, giving him one last squeeze before releasing him. "Come on, let's figure out how to get out of here."

They kept walking for a little while longer, then came to what looked like the entrance to a maze.

"Oh great, we'll never escape," Ryou said with a despairing sigh, but in the next moment, one prong of the Millennium Ring began to glow gold and point towards the path on the right. Ryou blinked at it in surprise.

"Is it… showing us the way out?" Ryou asked hesitantly.

"That's possible," the other answered, hesitant to trust anything the Millennium Ring tried to tell them.

"The magic of the Ring is more than just the spirit, right?" Ryou glanced up at Marik with a questioning look, and Marik nodded. "I don't suppose it could do us any harm to follow it, then. I mean, even if the spirit is the one doing this, he would benefit from telling us how to get out. After all, if _we_ stay trapped here forever, then so is he, right?"

"I guess we have nothing to lose by following his directions," Marik conceded.

"Then let's go!"

* * *

"You're not going to get away with this Pegasus!" Seto shouted at the sky, Adina's letter clenched in one hand. "I _will_ rescue my brother!"

"I'd like to see you try, Seto-Boy." Pegasus chuckled to himself as he watched Seto on the video feed from his security cameras. He sipped his wine thoughtfully, then called out, "Croquette, send me Kemo. I have a mission for him."

"Right away, Mister Pegasus." Croquette bowed at the waist and left at a brisk pace to do his employer's bidding.

Pegasus sipped his wine again and sighed, watching as Seto started to stride purposefully towards his castle. Seto wasn't actually supposed to find out about Mokuba's kidnapping just yet. He'd planned on revealing it when all four finalists had entered the castle, and he'd been confident that Yugi and Seto would be among the finalists. He'd only found out about Seto bearing the Millennium Rod _after_ he'd stolen the soul of Yugi's grandfather, and it had made him wonder which one—the Puzzle or the Rod—was more powerful. So, in order to determine this, he'd planned on pitting them against each other in the semi-finals. Whoever bore the more powerful Millennium Item was sure to win the duel, and the winner would then go on to beat the other finalist and finally duel Pegasus himself, betting not only his soul and his title, but also his Millennium Item. And if that plan didn't work out, there was always the option of manipulating Seto into working on the holographic technology for him.

Adina's little stunt with the paper air-planes, though, changed things. His guards had found them that morning on the ground beneath her window. They'd picked all of those ones up and disposed of them, as Pegasus ordered, and he'd moved Adina and Mokuba to the dungeon as a punishment. He hadn't realized that she'd actually sent some of her letters so far out into the island.

"You have a mission for me, Mister Pegasus?" Kemo asked as he entered the room.

"Yes. Kemo, I need you to apprehend the current Duel Monsters champion and bring him here to me. My security system has pinpointed his location, so you should have no difficulty finding him."

"Yes Mister Pegasus. Right away, sir." Kemo bowed deferentially and left the room to acquire the target's location from one of Pegasus' security agents.

Pegasus turned off the security video feed and turned on his favorite cartoon: Funny Bunny. He sat back in his chair with a smile, prepared to enjoy himself as he waited for Seto to arrive.

* * *

_You need to calm down, Seto._

_Calm down?!_ Seto was outraged. _So you think I should just calmly accept the fact that my brother was kidnapped while I was gone at a card game tournament? I should just calmly accept the fact that Adina was kidnapped after I put her brother in a catatonic state?_

_You shouldn't blame yourself for what he's done._

_I don't blame myself for what he did,_ Seto mentally scoffed as he walked briskly towards Pegasus' castle. _But I could have prevented this just the same._

_You couldn't have prevented this, Seto. We don't even know what all of this is about. Get a hold of yourself before you do something irrational._

_I'm not going to let anything stop me from rescuing Mokuba, and if that means I have to be irrational, so be it._ Seto pulled the locket out from under his shirt and popped it open, looking at the picture of his brother when he was even littler than he was now. _I promise to rescue you, Mokuba. At any cost._

 _Some prices aren't worth paying,_ Seth pointed out in a solemn, quiet voice.

 _Mokuba's_ life _is at stake!_ the brunette snapped angrily. _And nothing's more important than my little brother. I promised our mother on her deathbed that I'd take care of him, and I will. He's always looked up to me, and I won't disappoint him. Not now, not_ ever _._

A rustling in the bushes that was too loud to be a squirrel startled Seto, making him stop and look around. He closed the locket and dropped it under his shirt as he called out, "Who's there?"

"So you're the kid who beat Kaiba, eh?" A man stepped out from behind a tree, and Seto recognized him as the announcer from yesterday when they'd gotten off the boat. "You're coming with me. Consider it a personal invitation from Mr. Pegasus himself." With that Kemo lunged toward Seto, aiming a punch at him. Seto's battle instincts kicked in and he ducked the other's fist, jabbing his elbow hard into the man's ribs, effectively winding him. Seto grabbed the front of the man's suit and threw him over his shoulder so that kemo sprawled on the ground, stunned from the impact.

"Actually, _you're_ coming with _me_." Seto smirked as he twisted the man's arm behind his back and hauled him up by the back of his collar. He was glad that he was strong and had experience fighting, because otherwise, he would have been dragged away like a ragdoll. " _You_ are going to help me find Mokuba, wherever Pegasus is keeping him. And You're going to start by getting me into that castle." Seto lifted his gaze to the castle that peeked out above the tree cover, narrowing his eyes with determination. As he started leading his hostage towards the grandiose castle, he could feel Seth's disappointment in the back of his mind.

_It was self-defense._

_I know,_ Seth sighed, sounding unhappy. Seto could tell that he was holding back, but he was too preoccupied to be concerned about it right now. He wasn't going to let an ancient spirit stop him from doing everything he could to save his little brother, even if the spirit _was_ himself in a past life.

Seth could see the trajectory of these events far more clearly than Seto could, and he feared that he wouldn't be able to talk some sense into Seto before he made a terrible mistake.

* * *

"Don't cry, Adina," Mokuba pleaded as his younger companion started to sniffle. "We're going to be okay." He scooted closer to her over the dirty stone floor of their cell and hugged her reassuringly. He felt bad seeing her upset like this, and he was trying to do what he thought Seto would do for him in this situation.

"Can you promise that?" she asked, barely restraining the tears that threatened to flood her cheeks.

"My big brother won't let us down!" Mokuba proclaimed. "He promised to protect me, and he never breaks a promise. That means that he'll rescue us no matter what it takes!"

"I wish my big brother was like that." Adina started to cry, and Mokuba hugged her more tightly, taking pity on her.

"My big brother could be your brother too, if you want," he offered innocently. "And I know he won't rescue me and leave you behind." He picked up his locket and opened it, showing her the picture of Seto as she wiped her nose on her sleeve. "See? My brother gave this to me to prove that we'll always be together, even when we're apart. He's a good person, and he would never dream of leaving you behind."

"Okay, I believe you," Adina whimpered, still looking terrified. Mokuba closed his locket and gave her another hug. While he didn't like being here anymore than she did, and he didn't doubt the fact that Seto would come to save them, he didn't know how long it was going to take. That worried him more than anything else.

* * *

It took over an hour for Seto and Kemo to approach and sneak into Pegasus' castle. But when Kemo set off the alarm, Seto dashed off, feeling certain that he had a good idea of where he was going by this point. After sneaking past some of the guards-and knocking others unconscious when necessary-he could tell that he was getting close. Seth didn't comment much, unless it was to point out something that Seto hadn't seen or to warn him of an approaching guard that Seto didn't notice. Seth was disturbed by this turn of events, but Seto was flat-out furious. He only became more so when he found Mokuba and Adina Kaiba.

"Mokuba, are you alright?" He went up to the edge of their cell and gripped the bars, his eyes large as he realized that both children were chained to the wall by their ankles in addition to being imprisoned in a dark, dank dungeon. His fury was growing quickly, and Seth was just glad that he'd never told Seto that the Millennium Rod contained a hidden blade. He was afraid of what he might do with it now if only he knew it was available to him.

"Seto! It's you!" Mokuba looked overjoyed.

"Yeah, it's me," Seto replied softly, a small smile gentling his features. For just a moment, all of the anger left him. Knowing that his little brother was okay meant more to him than anything else.

"I always knew you would come rescue me," Mokuba said with a grin, a hand going up to grip his locket. "I always believed in you." The raven-haired child jumped to his feet and tried to run towards his brother, but cried out as he was held back by the chains and fell to his knees.

"Stay still, Mokuba. I don't want you to get hurt," Seto said quickly, his smile fading as easily as it had appeared. "Just hold one minute to pick the lock, and I'll get you both out of there."

"Okay!" Mokuba seemed cheerful, as if he'd already been freed.

"Thank you, Seto," Adina said in a small, quivering voice.

"You're welcome." He dropped to his knees in front of the lock and pulled a paper-clip out of his backpack's side-pocket. He straightened it out using his teeth and inserted it into the locking mechanism along with the narrowed end of the Millennium Rod, working at the lock as best he could.

 _How do you know how to pick locks?_ Seth asked curiously.

 _It's a long story, and I'm short on time. Ask me again later._ Seto's response was brisk, but mostly because he was trying to focus on completing his task while using tools that were not quite ideal.

"Well, well, isn't this adorable? Two brothers, reunited at last."

Seto looked up warily as he heard Pegasus' voice, glaring at the CEO as he approached them. He clapped his hands in a mocking applause, making Seto's fury flood his mind all over again. He glared at the billionaire and stood up, eyes narrowed not only in anger, but also in fear. After all, this was the man who felt no qualms about treating children like hardened criminals. There was no telling what he might do.

"Pegasus."

"I knew you'd come for your little brother eventually. That's why I sent you an escort." Pegasus chuckled in a way that made Seto grit his teeth. Nothing about this was funny. "However, it seems you prefer to do things your own way."

"Oh, did you now?" Seto growled, unaware of the way Mokuba and Adina started to huddle together in their cell, terrified of their captor. His grip on the Millennium Rod tightened. "Then tell me something, Pegasus: Did you foresee what I'm about to do to you for hurting my little brother?"

"Actually, I predict that you won't lay a finger on me." He smirked as Seto scowled.

"Oh _really_?" Seto raised the Millennium Rod and tried to blast Pegasus with Seth's Shadow magic, but Pegasus was quick to retaliate, their forces meeting in the middle and glowing brightly in the dim tunnels. The children cried out in fear, awe, and surprise, neither of them truly understanding what was happening right now. Seto was strong and determined, but he was also much less inexperienced at wielding magic than Pegasus was. The older man overpowered him, knocking Seto to the floor as the teen cried out. Pegasus chuckled, and his Eye started to glow again. Seto closed his eyes against the blinding light, but when he opened his eyes again, he was shocked by what he saw. Mokuba and Adina had slumped to the ground, unconscious and, as far as Seto could tell, lifeless.

"Mokuba!" he cried out. "What have you done to them?" Seto demanded as he stood somewhat shakily, affected by the use of magic more than he'd anticipated.

Pegasus began to laugh like a maniac, further angering the teenager. It was then that Seto noticed that Pegasus was holding up a pair of Duel Monster cards, both with gold frames, like monster cards. As he watched, the image of a frightened Mokuba appeared on one card, and a horrified Adina appeared on the other.

"You monster!" Seto shouted, reveling in anger as he tried to shut out the fear he felt. "What have you done? What have you done to them?!" Seth ached with pity for Seto, knowing that there was nothing he could say to make this better.

"Just a little magic trick," Pegasus answered casually, further infuriating the brunette.

"Tell me _now_." Seto's voice was fierce, his glare like that of a dangerous predator. _"What have you done?"_

"I've ensured your cooperation, for you see… I've sealed their souls in a place where the locks _can't_ be picked." Pegasus giggled again, pleased with himself.

"You're insane! You're not human!" It took all of Seto's strength to keep himself from assaulting Pegasus right there and then.

"And there he will _remain_ , Seto, until you beat me in a duel." His sly smile made him look like a caricature snake.

"Duel? With you? Now? Fine! I'll do anything!" Seth winced at Seto's choice of words.

Pegasus shook his head and teased, "Not just yet, Seto-Boy! First, you need to _earn_ the privilege to challenge me. And you can only do that be beating Yugi in a duel."

Seto gaped at him, and started to ask, "Yugi? What does _he_ have to do with—"

"And if you can't win against _him_ ," Pegasus continued, interrupting Seto and making the Duel Monsters Champion feel further degraded. "Mokuba's soul will stay mine _forever_!" He laughed again, sounding giddy with elation, the sound deepening Seto's new-found hatred for the man.

"I'll do whatever I have to," Seto said in a low voice. "I'll be back." He gripped the Millennium Rod tightly in one hand as he walked away stiffly, his mind burning with a desire for revenge.

"Oh yes, my little Champion," Pegasus crooned to himself, now alone in the dungeon with two unconscious children. He started t stroll in the other direction, back towards the main part of his castle as he sang to himself. "You'll be back, soon you'll see, you'll realize that you belong to me~"

Seto was just one of many pieces in his game, and he was playing his part perfectly.


	11. Bluff

"Who else did you duel today, Joey?" Ryou asked as the five friends ascended the stairs to Pegasus' castle.

"This morning I took out Bandit Keith," the blond answered with a grin. "He was one cheating basta—Hey!" He was cut off as Anzu whacked him upside the head and shot him a glare. She utilized far more effective methods than his parents when it came to getting Joey to clean up his language. "I mean, he was a cheating jerk." He glared right back at her and muttered, "Happy now?"

"Very." She stuck her little nose in the air and marched up the steps as Ryou and Marik tried not to laugh at the exchange. Yugi just grinned as he watched her go ahead of Joey on the stairs, his eyes momentarily distracted by the way her skirt swished with her hips.

"How about you?" Joey asked Ryou, trying to change the subject

"I dueled a zombie duelist in the caves named Bonz. Like I told you when we met up in the maze, he ran away with his star-chips instead of giving me what I was due." He looked sad for a moment. "Well, what matters most is that in the end, you and I defeated the Paradox brothers and we all made it out of that cave safe and sound!" Ryou turned to Yugi then. "How did you get _your_ ten star-chips, Yugi?"

"I dueled an Eliminator named PaniK last night," he answered, making Joey grimace a little. "He was a pretty sleazy guy who used a lot of underhanded tactics. He'd beaten Mai and taken all of her star-chips, so I won her star-chips back for her—and some for myself, of course!" It would have been foolish not to make that bet, especially since PaniK had been so confident that he would win he would have bet anything.

"I can't believe all three of you qualified for the finals!" Marik said cheerfully, reaching over to give Ryou's hand a squeeze. He was especially proud of Ryou, naturally. "I wonder if Seto qualified too."

"I wouldn't doubt it for a moment," Yugi said with a smile. "Seto's not the champion for nothing." Even though nearly every duel between Seto and Yugi had either ended in a tie or remained unfinished, and Yugi knew better than to think that was sheer luck. Seto was a winner by nature. He didn't stop until he was on top, whether it was a fistfight or a game of chess. Yugi was just glad that so far, it hadn't negatively impacted his friendships.

"Look!" Anzu pointed up ahead to the top of the stairs where Seto stood, his arms crossed, his long, dark purple coat being tugged by the wind. "I guess he did. Maybe he's waiting for us!"

Something was really bothering Ryou, though, as he looked up at Seto. He pulled Joey aside as the other three rushed up the stairs towards their mutual friend.

"Doesn't he seem... different to you?" Ryou asked quietly, looking up at Seto with a worried expression. "You two are really close. You can tell that something's off about him, right?"

"Yeah," Joey said quietly as he realized that Ryou was right. "That's how he looks when he's ready to tear someone's head off." Ryou gave Joey a strange look. "What? He and I used to fight all the time, remember? I know what he looks like when he's angry." They exchanged a worried glance before hurrying to catch up with their friends. They caught up just in time.

"Yugi." Seto sapphire eyes burned into the shorter teen from his higher ground. "Do you remember the day I defeated Noah Kaiba at Death-T?"

It seemed a strange way to open the conversation.

"Yes. I said I looked forward to dueling you someday." Yugi blinked up at Seto in understanding.

"I'd like to cash in that rain-check now, if that's alright with you."

"Of course," Yugi answered with a nod, but Anzu stopped him.

"Wait, Seto. Yugi already has ten star-chips. He doesn't have to duel you," she protested.

"No, Anzu, it's okay," Yugi reassured, holding up a hand to make her stop. He and Seto exchanged a look of their own, one that few of their spectators understood.

They had never seen eye to eye—and that wasn't just because of their height difference. Seto wasn't afraid to fight for what he believed in, to fight to protect those he cared about, to protect the innocents. Yugi was a pacifist and would rather take a beating than cause another person harm. Yugi believed the world was full of goodness. Seto saw the evil that lay hidden within everything and everyone. Yugi was optimistic. Seto was a pessimistic realist. The only place they could ever seem to meet in conflict without true contention was in a duel. Duels were the foundation of their tenuous friendship, and until the day when they started to see the world the same way, duels were the only thing that could strengthen it.

"We'll play using my newest innovation in holographic duel technologies," Seto said as he led them over to a clear space on an annex of the crenelated ramparts of the high castle wall. Seto stopped and turned, opening his backpack, pulling something out, and handing it to Yugi. "This a prototype of the new Duel Disk. It's a new high-tech dueling device that allows players the realism of arena matches in any setting."

"Whoah!" Ryou was impressed. _This must be what Seto has been working on lately at KaibaCorp,_ he thought.

"Looks like a flyin' saucer ta me," Joey remarked casually. Seto shot him a glare, but his expression softened ever so slightly as Joey grinned at him and Seto realized that his friend was just playing dumb for a laugh. Seto equipped himself with his own Duel Disk and he and Yugi parted, walking several paces away so that there was plenty of space between them.

"First insert your shuffled dueling deck into the display drive recognizer. A lifepoint count will light up and keep score for you the entire match," Seto instructed, demonstrating by placing his own shuffled deck in his Duel Disk. "Then choose a card to play and set it on the digital card reader. I think the rest will explain itself."

Yugi slotted his own deck and the life-point counter appeared: 2000. "What's the bet?" he asked, looking up at his own opponent.

"Five star-chips. Whoever wins will be the only one who gets to enter the castle."

Anzu started to fret as each duelist removed five star-chips from his dueling glove—for Seto, it was all the star-chips he had, since he hadn't dueled since yesterday—and tossed them to a place in the center between them.

Seto took a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to clear his mind. He needed to be at his best right now. He couldn't afford to lose. He closed his eyes for a moment. He could see Mokuba and Adina in his mind's eye, slumped over on the cold stone floor inside a prison cell. _I_ will _help you, Mokuba! There's not a power on Earth that will stop me—not Pegasus, not Yugi!_

As the brunette closed his eyes, so did Yugi. He was tapping into the power of the Millennium Puzzle, summoning the pharaoh's spirit to his aid. They were going to fight this duel together, like always.

"All set?" Seto asked, and Yugi nodded. "Then let's duel! Stand back and prepare for battle!"

They drew their starting hands, and Seth watched the duel as he held his breath. The tension among the spectators was palpable, none of them knowing for whom to cheer. Anzu leaned towards cheering for Yugi, and Joey leaned towards cheering for Seto, but Ryou and Marik were caught in the middle. Ryou liked and respected them both; he couldn't be asked to choose between them. Marik favored both of them equally, for they were both pharaohs he'd sworn to serve with his life. Now he understood what people meant when they said, "You cannot serve two masters." While they may or may not have made up their minds individually, they all held their tongues for now.

Seto placed a card on the card reader, placed the cards of his hand on the disk's outer slots, and threw his disk to the ground where it spun perpetually, generating holographic sparks that wove together into his first monster of the duel.

"I play Ryu-Kishin, in attack mode!" Attack 1600/Defense 1200.

Seto's hand fanned out in front of him, each holographic card as tall as he was. His hand consisted of Battle Ox, Saggi the Dark Clown, Ancient Lamp, and the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. A good hand.

"Look, the cards!" Anzu cried, as if the others didn't see the same thing she did.

"They're holograms—just like the monsters!" Joey was genuinely impressed, but then again, Seto never ceased to impress him.

Yugi placed his own cards accordingly and threw his own Duel Disk. "On your guard. I play Curse of Dragon, in attack mode!" Attack 2000/Defense 1500.

"Huh." Seto smirked a little. "Well done. A formidable card, Yugi, and a play I would expect from a duelist of your caliber."

"Don't patronize me!" Yugi shot back. It had begun: the bragging, the overconfidence, the big talk that seemed to accompany almost every tournament duel.

"Yugi, I know from playing you you're a talented duelist; but you're _just_ not as good as I am. Listen up—only one duelist is gonna challenge Pegasus, and that's _me!_ "

 _Why don't you just tell them the truth?_ Seth asked in despair.

"Wrong," Yugi retorted, wearing a smug grin of his own.

 _Because Pegasus said that I have to defeat Yugi in a duel, and if Yugi knows what's going on, he won't give it his all,_ Seto snapped back, starting to scowl. _I need to earn this victory. I won't have it just handed over to me._

"Then attack, and find out. What's the matter, Yugi, no faith in your monster?"

"You'll see—he's mightier than yours! Go, Curse of Dragon! Attack Ryu-Kishin! _Dragon flame!_ " Curse of Dragon soared high into the air and singed Ryu-Kishin off the field. "There—Ryu-Kishin is no more." Yugi's eyes left Seto's to study his own hand for a moment: Multiply, Monster Replace, Dark Magician, and The Eye of Truth. Seto's life-points fell to 1600, and he retracted his disk, smirking as he rearranged his cards.

"Hm. You're good, but oh so predictable. Don't you think I _expected_ that attack? And once again, you've played _right into my hands_ , Yugi."

Yugi didn't so much as twitch as he watched Seto, waiting for him to play his card.

"He's bluffing!" Anzu called, finally speaking from the peanut gallery. "You already have Seto on the ropes! All right, go Yugi!" As the first one to pick a side, she had drawn the first line in the sand. Marik and Ryou glanced at each other briefly, both wondering if this could possibly end well.

"It's not a bluff; as you will _all_ soon see." He drew his card, then placed his draw on the center of the disk before throwing it out once more. "I summon Swordstalker!" The sparks solidified into a hulking purple demon warrior, a red cape fluttering behind him. "The Swordstalker gathers the life force of a fallen ally, raising his own attack power by twenty percent." His monster's attack points went from 2000 to 2400 automatically.

"So _that's_ why Seto allowed his Ryu-Kishin to be defeated so easily!" Yami realized aloud, speaking somewhat quietly to himself. "So he could use its energy to create an even _stronger_ monster. And now that he's done that, his Swordstalker's attack strength is even greater than that of my Curse of Dragon!"

"Good move, Seto!" Joey called out, cheering on the brunette. "Way ta go!"

"Attack now, Swordstalker!" Seto barely glanced at Joey. "Vengeance strike!"

Yugi used Magic Replace to swap his Curse of Dragon with his Dark Magician for the duration of Seto's turn, using dark magic attack to destroy his Swordstalker. On his next turn, Seto used his La Jinn (1800/1000) and Magic Lamp combo, deflecting Yugi's attack and turning it back on his monsters, effectively destroying Curse of Dragon. Now their scores were even at 1500 life-points each, and Yugi had one monster on the field: Dark Magician, in attack mode. His hand contained Horn of the Unicorn, Multiply, Swords of Revealing Light, and The Eye of Truth.

 _I've never seen Seto duel this intensely before,_ Yugi observed, his words audible only to Yami. _It's like everything he has is riding on the outcome of this duel._

 _Do not worry, Aibou,_ Yami assured, sensing his hikari's concerns. _However this duel ends, we'll still be friends. He's too noble to be sore and petty about losing a card game._

Yugi played Swords of Revealing Light, and since the Magic Lamp made La Jinn untouchable, he didn't bother trying to attack. Seto then activated his De-Spell card to destroy the Swords. Yugi drew "Mystic Box" and used The Eye of Truth to see that Seto's hand contained Saggi the Dark Clown and Blue-Eyes White Dragon. Why hadn't he summoned it yet? It didn't make sense for him to keep it in his hand when he could use it to eliminate the Dark Magician.

"I don't know what he has planned, but it must be a powerful strategy," Ryou murmured to Marik as they watched the duel with wide eyes. "I've never seen him duel with such precision before. It's like he's calculated every move he could possibly make, every combo he could possibly use. Nothing seems to faze him."

Yugi's use of the Mystic Box destroyed his opponent's Magic Lamp, allowing his Dark Magician to attack and destroy La Jinn. Seto's life-points dropped from 1500 to 800, making him grit his teeth in frustration. He'd known that this battle wouldn't be easy, but even the slightest hint that he might lose this duel set him on edge. Adrenaline was pumping through his system, his pulse quick as he tried to suppress his nerves.

Seto then drew his Crush Card Virus and smirked, knowing that he had the advantage. He summoned Saggi the Dark Clown (600/1500) in defense mode and lay one card face-down. Yugi called the Dark Magician back to his hand, then drew and summoned Gaia the Fierce Knight to the field in attack mode. Gaia attacked Saggi, destroying him, but what he didn't know was that Saggi had been infected with the Crush Card Virus, so now Yugi's deck was infected, automatically destroying all monsters on his field or in his hand with attack power 1500 or higher. All high-powered monsters in Yugi's deck were also rendered useless. Yugi hadn't seen the move coming, and he had to admit that he was impressed.

"That's a dirty trick, Seto!" Anzu shouted at him, angry on Yugi's behalf.

"It's how the card works," he retorted coldly. "I'm just playing by the rules of the game."

"Yeah, Anzu, it's the rules of the game!" Joey said with crossed arms. "You never even played Duel Monsters!"

"I have too!" she exclaimed, stomping one foot as she rounded on Joey. "What are you, his guard dog? I didn't think that Seto needed _you_ to fight his battles for him!"

"Don't call me a dog," Joey growled, fists clenched at his sides as he glared down at the spunky teen.

"Hey, break it up, you two," Marik reprimanded, looking cross. "They're in the middle of a duel!"

Seto drew one card, Gift of the Mystical Elf, and passed his turn, which only intrigued Yugi further. The shorter duelist drew Summoned Skull, but it was useless to him thanks to Seto's virus, so he summoned Silver Fang (1200/800) in defense mode. Seto drew his second Blue-Eyes, and felt a small thrill of triumph. He summoned Battle Ox (1700/1000) in attack mode and destroyed Silver Fang. Yugi drew and summoned Griffore (1200/1500) and equipped it with Horn of the Unicorn, raising its stats to 1900/2000. He attacked and destroyed Battle Ox, reducing Seto's life-points from 800 to 600.

Seto was biting his lip as he drew his next card, but smiled to himself as he was filled with confidence. His third Blue-Eyes was now in his hand. He summoned one Blue-Eyes (3000/2500) then activated Gift of the Mystical Elf, which raised his life-points by 300 for each monster on the field, raising his life-points to 1200. When he attacked Griffore, he devastated Yugi's life-points, making them drop to 400.

Yugi was starting to feel a little nervous. He drew and summoned his Giant Soldier of Stone (1300/2000) in defense mode, looking down at his hand as he tried to plan his next move: Multiply, Mammoth Graveyard, Polymerization. Seto drew his card, and grinned broadly.

"I use polymerization to fuse together my Blue-Eyes with the two Blue-Eyes White Dragons in my hand, creating the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" The creature was truly a glorious sight to behold, rearing its three majestic heads as it gave a piercing cry. All of his friends gasped in shock, none of them having even known the existence of that monster.

_You need to stop this, Seto._

_Why should I stop?_ Seto demanded, becoming increasingly frustrated with the Spirit of the Millennium Rod. _I'm winning, in case you couldn't tell. My victory is assured._

 _Nothing is assured,_ Seth reminded him sternly. _Listen to me, Seto. I see where this is going much better than you do. Stop now, before it's too late._

_Since when can you see the future?_

_I can't, but it was_ shown _to me,_ (1) Seth replied, starting to grow frantic. _I can't tell you what will happen, but I know that if you keep going like this that—_

Seto couldn't take it anymore. _It's_ my _little brother whose soul is at stake, and I'll be doing this_ my _way!_

 _Just_ listen _to me, Seto!_

"Shut _up_ , Seth!" Seto shouted aloud without meaning to, and for a moment, they all got a glimpse of the intense anger he was working so hard to control right now. He jerked the Millennium Rod out of his beltloop—his usual spot for it—and gripped it tightly for a moment. Then he pulled his arm back and threw it towards the edge.

"No!" Marik dashed away from the others to catch the artifact before it fell into the woods hundreds of feet below them. He clutched it close to himself, staring up at Seto in horror. The brunette wasn't paying any attention to him at the moment, though.

"What is going on?" Ryou whispered to Marik, deeply disturbed by the turn of events. During the whole duel, Seto's behavior had been bothering him. Seto and Seth were supposed to be working together, like Yami and Yugi, weren't they? So why would he throw the Millennium Rod away? What had Seth said that set Seto off like that?

"Blue-Eyes, attack with neutron blast!" The three-headed dragon (4500/3800) reared back its three heads and launched a blinding attack of pure power at Yugi's stone soldier, annihilating it entirely.

"Draw your last pathetic card so I can end this, Yugi." Seto's eyes blazed, and Anzu took a step forward, her mouth open to shout something back, but Joey put his arm out to stop her. She looked up at him indignantly, but was surprised by the blond's grim expression.

"He can fend for himself," Joey said quietly, returning Anzu's gaze. "Yugi's stronger than you think."

"My grandpa's deck _has_ no pathetic cards!" Yugi placed a card on his card reader and threw the disk out again, saying, "I summon Kuriboh, in defense mode!" The adorable fluff-ball materialized on the field, its stats disappointingly low: 300 attack, 200 defense.

Seto chuckled, the sound low and scornful. It quickly escalated into a loud, haughty laugh that made Yugi narrow his eyes at his opponent.

"I'm not done yet," Yugi said, placing another card on his Duel Disk. "I activate Multiply, generating an endless army of Kuriboh to defend my life-points!"

"Cute, real cute," Seto scoffed. "Blue-Eyes, attack with neutron blast!" His god-like dragon blasted at the wall of Kuriboh, and while some of them disintegrated, many of them remained, and more Kuriboh immediately began to fill the whole.

"What?!" Seto exclaimed. His stomach sank and he swallowed hard, trying not to let it unbalance him. Surely there must be some kind of mistake. This couldn't be happening. Nobody, not even Yugi, no matter how good of a duelist he might be, was going to stand in his way. Nothing would stop him from rescuing his little brother. Nothing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (1) Remember when Seth talked to canonical Seto Kaiba during his Shadow Chess game with Noah Kaiba? ;)


	12. Dare

"Wait, what's going on? My attack had no effect on your life-points at all and those annoying creatures continue to multiply!"

"That's right, Seto, and you can't take my remaining life-points away until you destroy all the Kuriboh!" Yugi looked infuriatingly smug as he spoke.

"Hairballs," Seto growled, glaring at the many Kuriboh that he was just too angry to find adorable. "They've coming back even faster than I can blast them away."

"That's right. You might have created the ultimate attack monster, but I've created the ultimate defense: an ever-expanding army of furry protectors. They might not look like much, but they've stopped your dragon in its tracks. That's just the beginning, for now I go on the attack!" he declared, looking so confident that Seto knew it couldn't be a bluff, but he contradicted him anyways.

"Impossible. You don't have a monster strong enough."

"Watch me." That smug smirk made Seto even angrier. "For I'm going to show you the combination that will take your dragon down. Mammoth Graveyard, Polymerization, and the Living Arrow." As Yugi spoke, the holographic cards turned and revealed their card art. "Normally, I make a fusion with my cards, but, for a new twist, Living Arrow lets me fuse my cards with your cards, opening up bold new possibilities."

Seto wanted to yell at Yugi in that moment, scream that he'd never been bold for a single moment of his life. How dare he choose _this_ moment to grow a set and step up his game. Somehow, though, he managed to keep his mouth shut. Some small part of his mind was vaguely aware of the fact that he was essentially murdering his tenuous friendships, but he couldn't focus on that right now. He couldn't even _care_ about that right now. He only cared about Mokuba.

"Now, I will use my Living Arrow and Polymerization to fuse my Mammoth Graveyard with your Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon!" The three holographic cards were overlaid and a glowing arrow shot out from them that pierced the three-headed dragon, making it screech in pain. Seto bit his lip just to hear the sad sound. Their friends gasped as they watched the dragon begin to melt, crippled by the effects of Mammoth Graveyard.

"I can't watch this," Ryou murmured, his eyes still glued to Seto's dragon. He felt another hand brush against his and interlock their fingers. He glanced over at Marik, who smiled at him gently. "It's just so hard to watch."

"They'll still be friends after this, you know," Marik murmured in Egyptian so that only Ryou could understand him. "Neither of them are so petty as to stop being friends over a card-game."

"I've never seen Seto duel like this before," Ryou replied worriedly, still speaking privately as the duel progressed before them. "I've never seen him this _angry_ before."

They fell silent as Seto's dragon began to deteriorate, losing attack points with each turn that passed. Seto himself seemed to have hit a wall, as if he were incapable of processing the fact that no matter how many times he attacked, he would never annihilate all the Kuriboh on Yugi's side of the field.

"Go Yugi!" Anzu shouted, making Joey glare at her.

"Come on, Seto, you can still win this!" the blond called out, trying to encourage his friend. "Just shake it off! Don't let 'im get to ya!"

Seto didn't seem to hear either of them. He didn't look their way and he didn't react, simply continued to duel. Twice more he attacked, and twice more he failed. His ultimate dragon's attack points dropped to a level low enough that after his second attack, Yugi summoned his Celtic Guardian and was able to cut down one of the dragon's heads. Seto couldn't see a way out. He felt cornered, trapped, just like the way he'd felt every Thursday night during the darkest period of his life…

Seto was slipping, his grip loosening, his mind freezing as the inevitability of defeat sent terror through him. He couldn't lose. He couldn't _afford_ to lose. Sure, he had cards in his deck that could help him out of this, but he didn't have any of them in his hand, and he didn't have the _time_ to wait to draw them. Next turn, his dragon's attack points would further drop and—

He could see Mokuba in the dungeon, his soul stolen, rotting away because his brother wasn't strong enough. He could hear Mokuba screaming for help.

"You promised you'd save me!" Mokuba cried in his mind. "You promised, you promised! You told me that you'd never break a promise!"

Seto could see him crying, alone, abandoned, betrayed. He could see Seth glaring at him in disgust and anger.

"You're rotten to the core, Seto, just like your dragon."

Mokuba was sinking, swallowed up by a tangible darkness as he screamed for salvation.

He _couldn't_ let that happen, but he didn't see how he could stop it. He couldn't live with himself if—

That was it. He had an epiphany that would make Seth furious, but it couldn't possibly make him any angrier than he'd be if he failed to save his little brother.

"Face it, Seto," Yugi was saying as his opponent's mind returned its focus to their present situation. "Your dragon is finished. It's over."

"Yugi." Seto closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath before opening his eyes again. He knew what he needed to do. "My Blue-Eyes may have failed me, but I still have one strategy left." He took a step backwards. Then another, and another.

"What's he doing?" Anzu asked in a horrified whisper.

"He's gone nuts!" Joey exclaimed, then called out in a louder voice, "Seto, stop!"

The brunette halted as he stepped up onto the ledge, the wind tugging at his long coat as his narrowed eyes met Yugi's widened ones.

"Get down from there, Seto! It's just a card-game!" Ryou cried, starting to panic. Marik pulled Ryou closer to his side, trying to comfort him. Marik himself remained silent, angry with the other teen for his behavior, but waiting to see if he came to his senses before things went too far.

"What are you _doing_?"

"If you attack me, Yugi," Seto answered smoothly, sounding much too calm for his current position. "The shockwaves will likely knock me off the wall completely. It's fifty feet from here to the ground, which would give me, oh, about a fifty-percent chance of survival. Even if I do live, I'd be injured terribly. Probably paralyzed. You wouldn't want to be responsible for that, now would you?"

"How dare you—! What is _wrong_ with you, Seto?" Anzu screamed at him, tripping over her own words. She lunged towards him, but Joey grabbed her arm and stopped her.

Joey was even angrier than Marik because he knew Seto better. He'd seen the brunette suffer and struggle and stand his ground. He'd seen him violent and paranoid and exhausted. He'd seen him being protective and kind and noble. Between Death-T, Monster World, and his former prostitution, Seto's character had been well exposed to Joey. He'd thought that he knew him well, but this cruel, manipulative behavior didn't fit with anything that he'd seen before.

"Get down from there, Seto!" Yugi ordered, but Seto didn't move an inch. This troubled Yugi deeply. If Seto was serious about this, he couldn't risk attacking him and trying to call his bluff. At the same time, Yugi couldn't risk losing. He needed to win so that he could enter the castle and challenge Pegasus to reclaim his grandfather's soul. Why was Seto putting him in such a difficult position?

_We need to attack._

_No, this isn't right._

_It's the only way._

_I can't—_

_We must._

Yugi drew a card from his deck, added it to his hand, and shouted, "Celtic Guardian, attack!" The holographic elf lifted his sword over his shoulder and began to run towards the rotting dragon. Seto didn't flinch, didn't even blink.

Would it hurt to die? Would it just feel like falling asleep?

"I can't watch this," Ryou whimpered again, turning to Marik and throwing his arms around the Egyptian's neck, squeezing his eyes shut as he held his breath and waited for it to be over.

"No, Yugi, you can't!" Anzu screamed, pulling out of Joey's grasp and running towards their shorter friend. "Call off the attack!"

Yugi's face contorted as he struggled within himself and against the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle.

"Stop!" he finally screamed. The Celtic Guardian slowed and came to a stop mere feet away from the melting Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. It turned to look back at its master, as if confused, but Yugi had dropped to his knees, so overwhelmed with emotion that tears began to flow down his cheeks.

Seto had been saved by Yugi's better nature, but he didn't look triumphant or relieved. His expression remained unchanged. He didn't speak again until he'd drawn the top card from his deck.

"I use Monster Reborn to revive the third head of my Blue-Eyes!" A new head for his dragon materialized, its original stats restored. Now his dragon was strong enough to bring him to victory. "Blue-Eyes, White Lightning attack!" A blast of white-hot energy incinerated the Celtic Guardian and demolished Yugi's sparse life-points. The duel was over. He'd won, but at what cost?

Only Yugi's sobs and Seto's footsteps could be heard as the brunette stepped off the ledge and went to gather up the star-chips and Duel Disks. Anzu was at his side as Yugi shakily removed his deck from his before handing it to Seto, who carefully put them both back in his backpack.

"I can't believe you." Joey stepped up as Seto started to pass him, blocking his way to the castle's entrance. "I always knew you had an ego, but I didn't know you'd really do _anything_ to win."

Seto's icy eyes finally connected with Joey's blazing ones, making eye contact with him for the first time that day.

"Does the title of champion really mean that _much_ to you? Does it?" the blond demanded, his anger further riled by Seto's steady silence. "Are you really that _arrogant_ that you can't _stand_ to let someone else win it? _Are_ you?" Joey grabbed Seto by the front of his shirt, earning him a fierce glare from his friend. Seto grabbed Joey's hand and twisted, making Joey release his hold and wince as he found himself unable to break free.

"You don't understand," the champion growled in a low voice, the words ground out slowly. "You couldn't _possibly_ understand." That was all the defense he made for himself before casting Joey aside and striding away at a brisk pace. When he came to the door, he turned in his star-chips and entered the castle. Marik glared after him as he comforted Ryou, who was almost as upset as Yugi was by all of this.

"Hey bud, are you okay?" Joey asked, crouching down in front of Yugi, who stared at the ground as he cried on his hands and knees.

"I couldn't control it… the other presence inside me," Yugi whispered, lifting a hand to wipe his eyes with his sleeve.

"You mean, the pharaoh?" Joey asked gently, trying to clarify.

"Yes." Yugi tried to blink the tears from his eyes as Anzu got down to sit beside him, putting a hand on his back to try and reassure him.

"I'm sorry about your grandpa, Yugi." Anzu was fighting tears of her own now. "You could never hurt somebody else, though, not even for him."

"He wouldn't want to be rescued that way," Joey assured, thinking that his words were helpful. "You did the right thing."

"I know, but… I almost couldn't stop him." Yugi veiled his violet eyes from view as he tried to take a steady breath. "What if I never learn to control him? I can't promise that it won't happen again… If I don't know how to stop him, then I'm never going to duel again."

"What?" Joey blinked at his friend in shock. "But Yug, you're one of the best duelists I know!" No response. "You're grandpa's countin' on you! I'm dueling for 'im too, but you know I can't beat Seto! He's just too good!"

"That's enough, Joey," Anzu snapped, glaring at Joey before pulling Yugi up into a sitting position and hugging him tightly. She would do anything it took to make Yugi feel better, her pity for the pure-hearted teenager filling her with determination.

As the three of them spoke, Marik and Ryou seemed to be in a world of their own. Marik's arms were wrapped around Ryou, who'd slid his hands to Marik's chest and let his arms be folded between them. That created enough space that Ryou could comfortably rest his forehead on Marik's shoulder.

"How could he do that?" Ryou whispered, his breathing quick and shallow. "He could have died… he almost _did_ die! How _could_ he… Why? _Why_ would he do such an horrible thing?"

"I do not know." Marik's grip on the Millennium Rod tightened momentarily, then he shifted a little to tuck it into a belt-loop at his back, just as Seto carried it. He replaced his arm to hug Ryou more tightly. "Let us just be grateful that he is okay now." Of course Seto wasn't alright if he was threatening suicide in order to win a duel, but physically he was fine.

"I don't understand…"

"We will figure it out, okay?" Marik kissed the top of Ryou's head, making his lover lift his head to look at him. "We will talk to him and get this straightened out as soon as we get the chance to. Okay?"

"Okay." Ryou nodded a little, and Marik pecked his cheek.

"Are you going to be alright?" Marik asked with concern. "I know you and he used to be close."

"He never lets anyone got very close," Ryou murmured as he wiped his eyes on the cuff of his sleeve. "That's why I'm worried about him. I know that he's troubled, but…" His eyes started to water again, and Marik hugged him close once more.

"We _will_ figure this out somehow. I promise."

Ryou nodded as his thin arms encircled Marik's torso and hugged him just as tightly.


	13. Bet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Nothing can destroy friendship! It's the most powerful force in the universe! It's even stronger than Chuck Norris!" ~Tea Gardner, YGOTAS, Episode 15: Duel Of Fates

As Ryou released Marik and used his hand to brush away the final traces of his tears, they heard a new voice call out to them.

"Hey!"

Everyone but Yugi lifted their heads to look in the direction of the newcomer, who turned out to be Mai Kujaku.

"So I guess you guys qualified too," she said cheerfully, but a moment later realized that something was wrong. "What's going on here?"

"Yugi lost a duel to Seto and now he's not qualified for the finals anymore," Anzu answered, her hand on Yugi's shoulder as he continued to sit in his shell-shocked state. Ryou couldn't help but wonder if Yugi was trying to speak with Yami. Were they arguing? Were they trying to work through Yugi's fear? Was the pharaoh apologizing? Or was Yugi trying to force the pharaoh out of his soul forever?

"Then I suppose I arrived just in time." She strode over to Yugi and bent over a little as she held out her hand, which contained a half dozen star-chips. "I promised I'd pay you back, didn't I? Well, here they are. Don't worry, I've got enough for myself."

She winked and held up her dueling gauntlet, which was full, demonstrating that he could take the star-chips without preventing her from entering the finals. Yugi didn't react, though, and Mai frowned in frustration.

"What, my star-chips aren't good enough for you?" she demanded, looking quite miffed.

"Come on, Yugi," Anzu urged gently, giving his shoulder a small squeeze. "You won Mai's star-chips back for her so she could stay in the tournament, now she's just returning the favor. It's only fair."

Yugi remained unresponsive, increasing Mai's annoyance.

"Fine then, if you won't take my star-chips, you can sit here while the rest of us enter the finals." She withdrew the hand that held the star-chips and started to walk away.

"It's more complicated than that," Joey snapped. "Yugi doesn't want to duel ever again."

"What, because you lost _one_ lousy duel?" Mai turned around and crossed her arms, raising one eyebrow at the stricken teen. "Buck up, kid. So you lost one fight. Big deal. That's no reason to give up. If I'd given up when PaniK beat me, I wouldn't be standing here, now would I?"

"He's not giving up!" Anzu was quick to spring to Yugi's defense, metaphorically and physically. She now stood between Yugi and Mai. "You have no idea what he's going through!"

"Then explain it to me, because all I see is a sore loser who's not strong enough to get over himself."

"I won't let you stand there and mock him, Mai!" Anzu exclaimed, her emotions getting the better of her. "I challenge you to a duel!"

"I thought you said you didn't duel much," Mai scoffed, her sass increasing three-fold. "What makes you think you can suddenly beat me in a duel?"

"Because I'm dueling for my friend, unlike you! You're just dueling for yourself."

"What does _that_ have to do with anything?" Mai just humoring Anzu now, taunting her into a small fury.

Anzu fumed as she glared at the other woman, suppressing the urge to audibly growl. "Because friendship is the most powerful force in the universe!"

"It's even stronger than Chuck Norris?" Joey asked facetiously, making Mai giggle.

"You shut up!" Anzu had already been annoyed with Joey, and his comment had only made things worse. "Will you duel me or not?"

"Fine," Mai sighed, sounding bored. "I saw a Duel Arena near the bottom of the stairs. We can duel there."

"Fine!" Anzu and Mai headed down the stairs towards the Duel Arena while Marik and Ryou approached Joey and Yugi.

"Why did you have to provoke her?" Ryou asked with a look of disapproval. "Was that really necessary?"

"Nobody blasphemes Chuck Norris and gets away with it!" Joey exclaimed as Ryou reached down and took Yugi's hands in his own to help him stand up.

"What's Chuck Norris?" Marik asked, looking confused as he tilted his head to the side.

"You don't know who Chuck Norris is?" Joey gasped and staggered theatrically in shock. "Ryou, have you taught him nothing about culture?"

" _I_ hardly know who Chuck Norris is," Ryou replied, a little bit annoyed. "Besides, we've had more important things to teach him."

"As soon as we get back to Domino, I'm going to educate you two about Chuck Norris. We can have a movie marathon. It'll be great!"

Marik still looked confused, but when he looked to Ryou for further explanation, the Brit just shrugged. Joey attempted to entertain them with stupid Chuck Norris jokes as the four of them descended the stairs they'd ascended so recently in order to watch the girls' duel. Ryou quickly realized that Joey was just doing his level best to shake Yugi out of his trance. While Anzu had tried sympathy and Mai had tried taunting, Joey was trying humor. Unfortunately, his efforts were not very effective.

Ryou couldn't really focus on the duel. Joey and Marik seemed sufficiently entertained by it, but Ryou was more focused on Yugi, watching him carefully for any sign of interest or expression. He kept his hands on the other's shoulders, afraid that he was so out of himself he might fall over due to sheer inattention. With Joey and Marik focused on the duel, Ryou was able to speak to Yugi without being heard.

"I know how you feel, Yugi," Ryou began quietly, watching his friend's face carefully. "It's hard watching yourself—or the spirit, rather—trying to hurt your friends. I felt the same way during the Monster World incident." Yugi blinked a few times, which was the biggest reaction they'd gotten from him so far. "You don't have any control over your own actions. It's scary. You don't want to hurt anyone, but you don't know how to stop it." He fell silent as he relived some of the panic and terror he'd felt on that day. "It's hard, but you have to keep going. If you don't try to move forward… You lose everything, and that's not the answer."

When Yugi reached up and placed his hand over Ryou's, it startled the taller boy, but it comforted him too. Yugi still wouldn't look at him, but that was okay. He was reacting again, and that was a start.

Mai ended up conceding the duel to Anzu, claiming that she didn't have the cards to win. Between Anzu's encouraging words during the duel and Ryou's understanding, Yugi finally returned to his normal self. He gratefully accepted the star-chips Mai had won for him, pocketing the extra one before they all headed back to the castle.

They were halfway up the stairs when Ryou's cell-phone rang. Surprised, he pulled it out of his pocket and checked who was calling.

"Oh, darn, I forgot to call her back," he muttered as Marik glanced at him. He answered the call and put the phone to his ear. "Hi Mom!" he greeted cheerfully. "I'm sorry, I meant to call you back after this morning but…"

Ryou halted, and Marik stopped with him. After a few moments, so did everyone else, looking back to see what was wrong.

"I-I don't know," he said softly, his eyes flicking up to meet Marik's as the conversation continued. "Do the police have any idea where he is?"

"Ryou, what's going on?"

The white-haired teen seemed to be holding his breath as he looked up at Anzu and everyone else, listening carefully.

"Okay, I'll tell him. Update me as soon as you know something, alright?" A small pause. "Bye Mom." He hung up and put his phone away, looking around at everyone with regretful eyes.

"What happened?" Marik slipped his hand into Ryou's, hoping to transmit comfort to him with the pressure of his palm. It took Ryou a few moments to find the words he needed.

"Mokuba was abducted last night."

"Oh no!"

"That's awful!"

"Who?" Mai looked confused, so Joey decided to clarify for her.

"Seto's little brother."

"Oh."

"The police are trying to find him, but they don't know much of anything just yet. My mom was trying to call Seto, but she said his phone was off."

"We have to go tell him!" Yugi took off towards the castle entrance and everyone else followed suit, a guilty silence clinging heavily to the air between them.

After a brief debacle with the guard at the door, they all managed to enter the castle. It was a single hallway leading in one direction with no doors branching off, so they didn't have to stop and think about where they were going. At the end of the hall, behind double-doors, they found quite a surprise.

"Adina's soul too," Seto demanded as he faced Pegasus from across the Duel Arena.

"And why would you bother with the little sister of your greatest rival?" Pegasus questioned with a toss of his fabulous hair. "I don't see how she's any concern of yours."

"Because she's only in this mess because of me." His sense of guilty self-loathing was apparent in his eyes and the soft tremor in his voice.

"Seto!" Ryou called as he rushed forward to cling to the railing. "Mokuba's been—"

"Kidnapped. I know." Seto hardly spared a moment to glance at the new arrivals before fixing a glare of hatred upon his opponent. "And I know who has him, too."

"Come now, Seto, don't look at me like that," Pegasus crooned in his disturbingly melodic voice, a coy smile gracing his delicate features. "We're having a fun duel, aren't we?" He gestured towards the field between them, where the holographic projections indicated that they were, indeed, in the middle of a duel.

"Bastard." Seto slammed a closed fist against the console's surface to accent his fury. "You think betting people's lives is _fun_?"

"Perish the thought!" The Millennium Eye glittered behind his hair. "I think it's fun betting with people's _souls_!" While he cackled, Joey had an epiphany.

"Oh shit," he muttered, and for once, Anzu didn't elbow him in the ribs for it.

"What? What's going on, Joey?" Ryou didn't understand what was going on.

"Pegasus has Mokuba, doesn't he, Seto?" the blond called out, the others reacting in various expressions of shock and horror.

"Of course I do! How else could I persuade him to duel against his dear friend? I needed to see which one of you was better, and with both of you dueling for the soul of a loved one, I knew you would both duel your absolute best."

"Seto, is that true?" Yugi asked, pity entering his voice. Seto, disdaining the pity and overwhelmed with guilt, kept his eyes on Pegasus.

"Only if he can defeat me in a duel can he win his baby brother's soul back." Pegasus pulled a Duel Monsters card out from the inner pocket of his red suit jacket. The card's picture contained an image of Seto's terrified little brother. "Now he wants to raise the stakes."

"Yes. If I win, you have to set the others free too."

"Others?" Anzu looked scared. "How many souls does Pegasus _have_?"

"Quite a few, actually." He chuckled as he splayed the cards in his hand, revealing the soul cards for Adina Kaiba, Duke Devlin, and Yugi's grandpa as well. "Now tell me, Seto, why should I do such a thing?"

"Because you'll find it even more amusing."

"You should know by now that you don't stand a ghost of a chance against me." Pegasus smirked, but Seto didn't let it phase him.

"If you're so confident that you're going to win, then what do you have to lose?" The brunette lifted an eyebrow at the Duel Monsters creator, who paused to consider his point.

"Hmmm. Fair enough," he conceded. "Fine then: if you can manage to beat me in this duel, I'll let all four of them free. But, let's add a special twist: if I win, I take _your_ soul as my prize."

"Fine." Seto agreed without hesitation, and the duel continued. One turn after that, Seto had to abandon his hand, since Pegasus was able to read his mind with the Millennium Eye. Yugi tried to warn Seto, but Pegasus silenced him, claiming that any aid or advice would be counted as cheating—which would result in an automatic loss for their friend.

Seto dueled hard, but Marik knew that he had lost before he even began. The moment he'd rejected Seth and the Millennium Rod, he'd lost. Without the Rod, he was incapable of withstanding the power of Pegasus' Millennium Eye. They tried to explain the magical element of the duel to Mai, and while she seemed unconvinced, she was willing to go along with it.

All too soon, Seto's defeat became apparent to everyone, and Ryou was clinging to Marik again, incapable of watching his friend lose his very soul.

As he faced Pegasus' final attack, Seto felt strangely calm and cold.

"I'm sorry, Mokuba. I never meant to break my promise," he murmured, his words audible only to himself. "Forgive me. I did the best I could. It just wasn't good enough." The attack wiped out his life-points, and he could only stand there as ice-cold magic pierced his chest and enveloped him in darkness. The last sound he heard was the menacing echo of Pegasus' sadistic laughter.

"He was just tryin' ta save 'is little brother." Joey watched as a pair of Pegasus' goons took Seto's empty shell away.

"Seto's just like me," Yugi said as he smashed his fist against the railing, his eyes watering again. "He was just trying to save someone he cares about." He shuddered and rested his forehead beside his fist, empathetic tears streaming down his face even as Ryou did the same thing, only with Marik's shoulder.

"Geez, I've never seen so much male weeping at one time." Mai's scorn broke through the haze of horror that had fallen over them all. "If you really want to help your friend, you'll need to suck it up and get your head in the game."

"Mai's right." Joey glanced at her and nodded. "We're gonna have ta focus if we're gonna save Seto, Grandpa, and the others. Are you in, Ryou?"

"Yeah." Ryou wiped the tears from his eyes as he nodded and pulled away from Marik a little, symbolically standing on his own. "Seto tried handling this on his own, but we know that's not going to work. Even though we'll have to battle one another, we'll have to find a way to work together too."

"Ryou's right," Yugi agreed, straightening up as he turned to face the others with an encouraging smile. "By helping each other, we can free them all and defeat Pegasus!"

"Yeah!"

"Attention duelists: if you'll follow me, I can show you to your rooms. You will be summoned for dinner in a little over an hour."

They followed Croquette down a few halls to the guest rooms. There were enough that they each got their own. While Joey, Anzu, and Yugi met in one room to discuss what they knew about Pegasus' Millennium Eye, Mai went for a stroll around the castle. Ryou, emotionally and physically exhausted from the day, opted to just lie down for a little while. Marik was going to leave his own room and join the others to add what he knew to the conversation when he heard a voice.

"Marik."

The tanned teen looked up at the sound of his name being whispered into his ear, but he was still alone, as far as he could see.

"Who's there?"

"Marik, you know me." Seth's ghostly image shivered into sight, and thought it was faint, there was no mistaking those broad shoulders, that imperial posture, those stern sapphire eyes.

"My pharaoh," Marik murmured in wide-eyed reverence. He dropped to his knees and bent forward, bowing with his forehead to the floor to the king he'd sworn to serve.

"Marik, I need your help to right these wrongs and keep Pegasus in check during the remainder of the tournament. Before we can do anything, you must answer me this: is the Spirit of the Millennium Ring still around, or was he successfully banished after Monster World?"

"He's still here, my lord," Marik answered softly, still staring at the floor. "He's very much present, but I don't think Ryou himself even knows. I would have spoken sooner had I known, but he made threats that I couldn't work around."

"I suspected as much." Seth closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them again, looking determined. "You must keep this a secret between us. Do not let Ryou know what's happening, and unless I give you specific orders, do not let Ryou out of your sight."

"Yes, Pharaoh."

"Rise, my child," Seth said, his voice gentling. Marik obeyed, standing before the tall spirit and gazing at him fondly. "Now, we must find a way to get me back to Seto's body. Once we've accomplished that, I can begin to help. You must be prepared to use the Millennium Rod at a moment's notice, the instant I tell you to. Can you do that, without hesitation and without reservation?"

Marik reached behind him and extracted the Millennium Rod from its place, holding it in front of him as he gazed into its eye for a moment. He held it tightly by its shaft, and for the first time in his life, he could feel the power, the energy, the _magic_ it held. It flowed like a gushing river through his veins as, for the first time, he felt that he had access to all that magic.

"Yes, my pharaoh." Marik looked up at Seth, his jaw set firmly. He could wield the magic. He would do anything to serve his master.


	14. Apology

At dinner, all of the finalists—Mai, Ryou, Joey, and Yugi—and their friends—Marik and Anzu—were present. Dinner could have been a more cheerful event, but as it was, some members of their group were still reeling from seeing Seto lose his soul to Pegasus. Marik's conversation with Seth had been brief, since speaking with the tomb-keeper was quite taxing on his limited resources. As the spirit had wished, Marik had told no one about their discussion or their plan.

At dinner, the matches were determined for tomorrow's duels: first, Yugi vs. Mai, then, Joey vs. Ryou.

Mai was looking forward to an honest, fair duel with Yugi, and she knew that she'd have to prepare her best deck yet if she was to beat him, especially since he'd seen her duel before. She spent a few hours after dinner laying out the cards of her deck and swapping some out with those in her side deck as she paired and tripled them in every strategic combination possible. Only once she was satisfied with her deck did she go to sleep, getting as much rest as she could so that she could be ready for her duel in the morning.

Yugi had faith in his grandfather's deck and went straight to bed, trying to sleep despite his concern for the souls at stake in tomorrow's duels. When he slept, he dreamed of his grandfather and the others whose souls had been stolen. Everyone called to him, begging to be saved. How could he save everyone, though, when he couldn't even trust the spirit who lived in the Millennium Puzzle? He was prepared to do anything to win against Seto, so he'd have to keep him in check and duel on his own.

Joey slept too, but more restlessly. He couldn't get over what had happened in front of the castle that day, how Seto had been willing to do anything to save his little brother, even risk his own life and his friendships. Any of them might have been terminated as a result of his actions. Joey himself was feeling awfully guilty for the things he'd said. He just hoped that he got a chance to apologize for the misunderstanding, that Seto wouldn't forever remember that as their last interaction as his soul wasted away in god-knows-where.

Marik snuck into Ryou's room that night to join him in bed, for three reasons. First, Marik didn't like sleeping alone. He never had. Second, Seth had instructed him to stay with Ryou at all times in order to keep the Spirit of the Ring in check. Third, he loved Ryou and simply didn't want to be away from him. He held Ryou as he slept, pleased to see him at peace when so many of his waking hours were fraught with fear.

Anzu slept as peacefully as she could. She was most concerned for the children. How could someone be so cruel as to kidnap and imprison young children, then steal their souls and use them as bargaining chips in a card-game? What did he even plan on _doing_ with them?

* * *

"Let the duel begin!" Croquette exclaimed as Mai and Yugi faced off across the Duel Arena. Yugi struggled during the first few turns. Anzu, Ryou, Joey, and Marik cheered him on, trying to encourage him, but he was still struggling.

"I forgot something back in our room," Marik said suddenly. He gave Ryou's hand a squeeze before releasing it. "I'll be right back."

"Okay. Try to be back by the end of the duel." Ryou was nervous for his duel; he couldn't help it. The only duels he'd ever _seen_ Joey fight were against Seto and Yugi, and those hadn't been excellently executed, but if Joey had qualified for the semi-finals, then he _must_ have gotten much better.

"I will," Marik promised with a smile, then turned and left, going back to his room to fetch the Millennium Rod. He'd left it behind on purpose, but it was perfectly safe in its hiding place. Once out of sight, he jogged the rest of the way. He knelt and pulled the Rod out from under the bed and felt its power run through him as he gripped its shaft. "Off to find Seto."

Sneaking around wasn't Marik's strong suit, but since he was alone, there wasn't anyone to talk to, and he thought that talking would be the only way to get caught. He was wrong. He had to hide behind various drapes and suits of armor at least three times as guards walked past him, and each time, his breathing alone almost gave him away.

Seth was in the back of his mind the whole time, speaking as little as possible in order to preserve his limited energy resources. Marik had no need to use the Rod until he was checking behind the large portrait of a woman with and a pair of guards walked in on him. Marik froze, terrified, but Seth's voice in his mind urged him on.

_Now, Marik! Use it now!_

"In the name of the pharaoh!" he cried as he thrust the Rod towards the two guards, and they froze. The Eye of Ra appeared on their foreheads in glowing yellow, and a blank look overcame their expressions. It made Marik feel... powerful. "Take me to Seto, now," he ordered, and experienced a strange delight when they began to obey him. He followed them, keeping his eyes open for anyone else. They stopped in front of an unassuming door, and Marik stepped up to open it. It was locked.

"Unlock it."

"We don't have the keys," one of them answered in a monotone voice.

"Then _get_ them!" he snapped irritably.

 _Patience, Marik,_ Seth cautioned, his voice firm, but the sound of it faint. Faint enough that it was easy to ignore.

"Nevermind, don't get them." He'd changed his mind. "You, go away. Remember none of this." He gestured to one of them with the Rod, and the man began to walk away. "You, take me to where I can get the keys." He followed the brainwashed guard to their destination, but he'd needed to activate a few trap-cards along the way to incapacitate the other grunts they encountered. He wasn't sure how long the bonds would hold, though, so he tried to move quickly.

* * *

"Marik's been gone an awful long time," Ryou commented nervously, his hands gripping the railing of the observation area a little too tightly. "Do you think I should go and find him?"

"No way, man. You gotta stay put for our duel," Joey answered, shaking his head. He placed a hand on Ryou's shoulder and tried to comfort him by saying, "Don't worry about 'im. He'll be back in no time, don't you worry!"

Ryou swallowed and nodded, but still felt anxious. Joey's words hadn't reassured him, but he was grateful that he'd made the effort.

* * *

 _Let them go, Marik,_ Seth ordered sternly. S _end them away and free their minds._

Marik was struggling to listen, though, as he stood again in front of the locked door. He knew that he _should_ make the guards go away and release his influence over them, but he didn't feel safe doing so. What if they were still caught? What if _his_ soul was stolen too?

_Trust me._

The Egyptian bit his lip and breathed deeply for a moment. His hand shook as he finally overcame his own inclinations and obeyed his pharaoh. Seth said no more, but he didn't need to. As the guards quickly spread themselves to the farthest corners of the castle, Marik shakily unlocked the door with the pilfered keys.

He recognized Seto's body on the bed, but he didn't know who lay beside him with his hands cuffed to the foot of the bed. Seto was unbound, however, and Marik rushed forward to place the Millennium Rod in the brunette's limp hand.

* * *

Cold. All Seto could feel was the frigid darkness in which his soul was imprisoned. Whatever kept him here also kept him paralyzed.

There was no air here, no sound, no light. Just a crushing, savage, hateful darkness that asphyxiated him without giving him the peace of unconsciousness or the ability to escape in death.

He tried to scream for help, but no sound came out, and nobody would have heard him anyways.

Then something changed.

The absolutely freezing darkness softened into a forgiving, warm grey. Still no air, no sound, no true light, but he could feel someone else there. He couldn't touch his mind or tap his heart, but he knew Seth was there. If he could have spoken, he would have screamed for help, begged for freedom.

All he could do was reassure himself with the fact that Seth had not forsaken him.

* * *

Seth's eyes opened as he found himself embodied once more. He delved into his mind to find Seto, but his memories, emotions, and knowledge were all locked away with his soul. There was just enough of Seto's soul left in his body that would keep it alive, but just barely. It had no consciousness as far as Seth could tell.

 _I_ will _save you, Seto. And Mokuba and all the others. I swear._

He stood and stretched to ease the stiffness from his arms, and noticed after a moment that Marik had fallen to his knees before him, bowing with his face to the floor as he'd done the night before.

"I am so sorry," the lavender-eyed teen murmured. "I shouldn't have gotten carried away like that. I should have obeyed you without hesitation. I should have—"

"Marik, I knew it would happen." Seth knelt on one knee before the other teen who lifted his eyes to the brunette in surprise. "People who use the Millennium Items without truly owning them lose themselves to the power sooner or later. Even good people like you." His tone was understanding and his eyes were kind, endearing Marik to him and easing his sense of guilt. "You withstood the influence longer than most people could. You did your best, and I couldn't have asked for more than that." He stood and extended his arm downwards, saying, "Take the hand, son."

Marik relaxed and clasped Seth's hand, rising from the floor with his help. The instant he was standing, though, Seth released his hand and bowed at the waist to the tomb-keeper, who was promptly shocked by the honor.

"If anyone should be apologizing, it is I," Seth said reverently as he stared at the floor. "Your ancestors, your family, your siblings, and you were never meant to suffer as you have done. The interpretations of our instructions changed over time in ways that we could not foresee. Nevertheless, I and the others are to blame for it."

He straightened up and was a bit dismayed when he saw Marik's eyes tearing up. He hadn't meant to upset him.

"I'm sorry, Marik," he repeated as he pulled the other teen into an embrace.

They held each other tightly, two Egyptians commiserating over the suffering of their people. Seth knew it all much better than Marik, though: he'd watched generation after generation of Marik's ancestors live and die in endless cycles for the past three thousand years. He knew it all better than anyone alive. It had been necessary, in a way, but that didn't make it any less awful.

"You and your siblings did not deserve what was done to you," Seth whispered. "None of that was sanctioned. Especially..." His voice broke, and he swallowed the lump in his throat. "Especially what was done to your sister."

Marik nodded silently and closed his eyes as he let his emotions settle once more. If he was to be helpful, he needed to be calm. "I can't wait to see them again," he whispered with a faint smile.

"I am sure you'll see them again soon." Seth gave Marik a final squeeze before they released each other. "Ryou's father is a good man. You can trust him to bring them home as quickly as possible."

Marik nodded again and, smiling, agreed, "Yes, he is. A good man and a good father."

With that matter now settled between them, Seth turned and looked down at Duke with regret. "I wish that I could at least free him for now, but I don't know how to pick a lock. Seto does, but..." He gently brushed a lock of dark hair off of Duke's face, let his hand drop from the pale skin, sighed, and shrugged. "I'm afraid there's nothing we can do for him until his soul is released."

"Then we should rejoin the others. Ryou's duel should be starting soon."

Marik was right, and Seth knew it, but as he stepped away from the bed where Duke was restrained, a mirror on the opposite wall caught his eye. Out of vain curiosity, he walked over to it, Marik following him like a loyal hound. He carefully studied his own features—Seto's features, really—trying to see just how different he was from his life in Egypt. Something looked wrong, though, something he couldn't quite put his finger on. Only when he looked at Marik's reflection did he realize what was bothering him.

"Marik, may I borrow your kohl?"

"Of course," Marik answered promptly, reaching into his pocket and handing the pharaoh his eyeliner.


	15. Interference

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case there was any confusion, I am not, for the most part, making a distinction in narration between Yami and Yugi. Since they're not the protagonists and the precise nature of their relationship is complicated, especially when they're dueling, I'll leave that up to your imagination and let you see them the same way their friends see them.

"Do you miss Seto?" Marik asked the pharaoh as they returned to the Duel Arena.

"Very much," Seth answered softly, his voice warm as he placed a hand on his chest. He chuckled a little and said, "He says the funniest things. He once told me not to stick my finger inside the toaster."

Marik's face lit up and he exclaimed, "Ryou told me the same thing!" They laughed together at a joke that only they could understand.

"We can't tell anyone else that the Spirit of the Millennium Ring is still present," Marik said suddenly. "Seto will know, of course, but we can't tell the others. Bakura said he'd hurt Ryou if anybody else found out."

"Bakura? Is that his name?" Seth asked curiously. Bakura, the Millennium Ring... it stirred a long-distant piece of memory.

"It's what he told me to call him." Marik watched Seth's expression as his eyebrows drew together and his forehead creased. "Does that mean something to you?"

"Perhaps... My memory isn't as clear as I would like it to be." Seth sighed and shook his head. "Three thousand years will do that to you."

"How much _do_ you remember?" Marik couldn't help that he was intrigued.

"I remember my wife, and my cousin, and my first love." He sighed wistfully at the memory, even though his eyes filled with remembered pain. "I remember my firstborn son, but I can't recall the name of my youngest daughter. I remember going to war with Persia, but I don't know how many battles were fought or how the war was started." He shrugged, and concluded, "That's just the way things go, I suppose. Everything I know is in my memory somewhere, and if I think hard enough, I'm sure I can find it."

* * *

"I surrender, Yugi," Mai said, her hand placed over deck as she accepted defeat as graciously as she could. "I don't want to see my harpies destroyed , and I just don't have the cards in my hand to win." Their eyes met across the Duel Arena and Yugi nodded respectfully.

"Mai Kujaku has surrendered. Yugi Moto is the winner!" Croquette announced as both duelists put their decks back together and stepped down from the Arena.

"Thank you for the duel, Mai," Yugi said as he approached her with his right hand extended. "You fought well." She shook his hand and smiled, looking pleased despite her loss.

"As did you, Yugi. I count on our having a rematch some day, though," she teased with a wink.

"I look forward to it," he replied warmly. As the two duelists exited the arena area amiably, Yugi ignored Pegasus' gaze fixed persistently on him. He wouldn't give him the satisfaction of looking nervous before his adversary.

"The duel between Ryou Bakura and Joey Wheeler shall commence!" Croquette continued as Joey congratulated Yugi on his victory and Anzu tried to reassure Ryou that Marik would surely be back any second now. "Duelists, please take your places in the arena!"

"I guess that's it for me, boys," Mai said as she began to walk away from the group. "I'll see you on the outside!"

"Wait, Mai, aren't you going to watch our duel?" Joey asked, making her stop and turn. She had been about to say no, but he looked so much like an eager puppy that she changed her mind.

"I suppose I might as well see the tournament through to the end," she said casually, going back to their little group and leaning against the railing next to Anzu. "Good luck, Joey."

The blond teen was pleased by Mai's change of mind, and Mai had to admit that she was glad he was pleased. He was a good kid, and while he'd seemed goofy to her when they'd met, he'd proven last night that he was much deeper than that. She even suspected that he had a serious side hidden under all that blustering optimism.

"Where do you think Marik is?" Anzu asked Yugi quietly as Ryou and Joey left the observation deck to do as Croquette had ordered.

"I don't know." Yugi looked just as worried as she was. "Should we go looking for him? He might have gotten lost. The castle is pretty big, after all."

"If he's lost, he could just ask a guard for directions," Anzu pointed out.

"Was Marik the exotic one?" Mai asked suddenly, interrupting their whispered discussion as Ryou and Joey shuffled each other's decks.

"Yes, he's from Egypt," Yugi answered, turning to face the older woman.

"And since he's gone AWOL, you're trying to decide whether to stay and watch your friends, or go find him." She pushed away from the railing. "I'll look for him if you like."

"But Joey wants you here too!" Yugi protested, making Mai blush a little.

"Alright, well, if they're not back in the next few turns, I'll go find them," Mai conceded, resting her elbows on the railing and her chin in her hands.

"Let the duel begin!" Croquette shouted as Pegasus watched coolly. He knew that Ryou had the Millennium Ring, and duelists with Millennium Items were universally superior duelists, so he thought he already knew who was going to win. He'd felt the same way watching Yugi and Mai duel, except that Yugi had been at odds with the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, and his victory was assured only once his inner conflict was resolved.

Joey went first, laying a monster card face-down and placing a magic card face-down.

"I'll go easy on ya for now," the blond said in his overconfident way as he ended his turn.

When Ryou drew from his deck and looked at the cards in his hand, he froze in temporary panic. He couldn't read any of them. He could see the picture and the background color of the card, but all text was nonsense to him. He swallowed hard and took a deep breath, reminding himself that he knew his deck inside and out, and that he shouldn't have any problem participating in the duel. What worried him, though, was his sudden, inexplicable inability to read.

"I place two cards face-down and summon Headless Knight, in attack mode." He placed the cards in their appropriate places on the card-reader. He would never tire of the abilities of the holographic technology that the Duel Arena possessed; it was strange to think that his own friend had been responsible for its programming. "I hope it doesn't scare you _too_ much, Joey," he taunted, pretending to be as calm and confident as he'd been when he dueled Bonz in the caves. "I know how much you hate ghosts. Headless Knight, attack his face-down card!"

"I ain't scared o' your zombie soldier! At least, my Alligator's Sword isn't!" Joey's monster revealed itself, countering the Headless Knight's attack and causing Ryou a fifty life-point loss. Ryou frowned at the loss; he hadn't counted on Joey's card stronger than his.

"That was a nice try, but you're gonna have ta do better than that!" Joey drew a card and said, "I activate Reinforcement of the Army, allowing me to select a four-star Warrior-type monster from my deck and add it to my hand." Joey skimmed through his deck, chose a card, then shuffled his deck and replaced it. "Now, I summon..." He wiggled his fingers over the splay of cards in his hand as he thought for a moment, then selected one and threw it down. "Baby Dragon, and I fuse it with my Alligator's Sword to create Alligator's Sword Dragon!" His monsters fused, the armed alligator mounting the infant dragon and increasing both their attack points. " _And_ , I equip it with Legendary Sword, boosting its attack and defense points by three hundred each. Go, attack his Headless Knight!"

That was another five hundred and fifty out of Ryou's life-points, knocking him down to fourteen-hundred life-points. Ryou could hardly believe what was happening. How had he been so unprepared for that kind of attack? Then he remembered: Spiritualism was one of his face-down cards. He could have negated Joey's use of Legendary Sword, but he hadn't. How had he forgotten that? He'd _just_ placed the card on the field. He gritted his teeth in frustration, glaring down at the cards in his hand. He was better than this. Wasn't he?

He glanced briefly at the balcony, long enough to see that Marik still wasn't there, which was a shame, because he really could have used the support right now.

* * *

"Seto?!" Yugi stared in shock as the tall brunette strode towards them with Marik at his side and the Millennium Rod in his hand. Anzu and Mai turned around in time to see him shaking his head.

"Not Seto, Seth."

To Anzu and Yugi, this comment made perfect sense. Mai was utterly confused by it, so Yugi began to expound upon his explanation of the Millennium Items from earlier. They were magical artifacts from Egypt, and at least three of them-the Puzzle, the Ring, and the Rod-also housed ancient spirits. Seth was the Spirit of the Rod.

While Yugi did that, though, Marik ran right to the railing and waved to Ryou, calling his lover's name. Mentally, though, he was kicking himself in the ass for missing the beginning of the duel. He couldn't blame Ryou for looking disappointed, and even a bit angry, when he looked back at them, but he'd hoped that Seth's presence would ameliorate Ryou's displeasure.

"This isn't right," Marik murmured as he dropped his arm and frowned at the scores. "Ryou's better than this. How many turns in are they?"

"Three, and Ryou's barely made a dent in Joey's life-points," Mai answered, shaking her head sadly. "His head's just not in the game."

Marik found the duel to be painful to watch. Ryou was completely off his game, both strategically and psychologically. He'd lay magic cards face-down, then never activate them. He'd look at his cards in confusion as if he'd never seen them before. He'd declare an attack only to attack the wrong monster and get his own destroyed. Even Joey could see that something was up.

"Alright, time out," Joey said at the start of his fifth turn, laying down his hand and Ryou following suit. "You ain't dueling your best, and beating you when you're dueling like this wouldn't mean all that much. What's wrong, pal?"

"I don't know," Ryou answered softly, his gaze downcast as he felt his ears burn red with shame. At least nobody could see his ears under his hair.

"What's that? I can't hear ya."

"I don't know," Ryou flashed back, sounding louder and sharper than he'd intended. He looked down at the floor again and added, "Don't go easy on me, though."

"Alright." Joey was reluctant to resume. "Just try to have fun, okay?" He grinned at his opponent, and Ryou seemed to relax a little as they resumed their duel.

Ryou could feel the Millennium Eye trained on him as they continued, reading his mind. It just made things harder for him by making him anxious. As Ryou ended his next turn, he glanced up at Pegasus, making eye contact with the creator of Duel Monsters. The instant he did so, he _felt_ the foreign presence pushing into his mind. He felt Pegasus there just as much as he felt the Spirit of the Millennium Ring surge suddenly to block Pegasus from reading his mind. Pegasus turned away and Ryou looked up at Joey, who had just finished saying something as he drew his card. The wordless exchange between Ryou and Pegasus had lasted for a split second, but it troubled the teen further. The spirit... he was still with them.

By the end of Joey's turn, it was abundantly clear that Ryou had lost the duel. It didn't make any sense for him to keep fighting when he knew that he couldn't do anything. Surrendering when the outcome was certain was a gracious way to concede the duel; it was also just a way to give up. Ryou was doing both.

He lay his hand on his deck before anybody could realize what he was going to do, not wanting someone to try to talk him out of it. He could hear the others' gasps as Marik cried out in dismay.

"Ryou, what are you doing?"

"Ryou Bakura has surrendered. Joey Wheeler has won the duel!" Croquette announced, arm raised, as the white-haired teen quickly gathered together his cards so that he could escape as soon as possible. Once all his cards were in his hands, he turned and disappeared down the hallway behind him, taking a turn onto the stairs that would lead him up to the balcony, but stopping a little less than half-way up.

He held his deck tightly in his hand, his knuckles turning white from the strength of his grip. Overcome with frustration, he suddenly turned around and kicked the wall, grunting as he did so. He wasn't experienced at kicking things, however, and he lost his balance, falling backwards and landing on the edge of the step as the cards of his deck slipped out from between the top and bottom cards, the ones his fingers were actually touching. His deck was spread out on the stairs around him, and after his terrible loss at a game that he knew better than his opponent did, it was the last straw.

He straightened out a little so that he could sit properly on the step and dropped his head into his hands, fighting hard not to cry.

"Are you okay?" Marik called from above and behind him, but Ryou didn't want to answer.

He didn't want to talk at all.

"Hey, look at me."

Marik gently removed Ryou's hands from his face and replaced them with his own, tipping his face upwards so that Marik could look him in the eye, but Ryou pulled away from him.

"I'm sorry that I wasn't here for the start of your duel. I really thought I'd be back by then." Marik's apology was so sweet and sincere as he patiently cupped Ryou's cheeks in his hands again and made him meet Marik's gaze. Ryou didn't pull away this time, so now he noticed that Marik looked truly regretful. "I'm _really_ sorry. I needed to find Seto's body and give him the Millennium Rod back so that Seth could help us. It just took longer than we anticipated and—Oh, darling, please don't cry."

Ryou lifted a hand and wiped his eyes on the cuff of his sweater as Marik kissed his forehead.

"I'm better than that," Ryou whispered at last, his voice thick with emotion. "I'm a _much_ better duelist than that!" His voice rose as he grew even more upset, and Marik hushed him, stroking his hair comfortingly. "I don't know what happened, I just... Maybe I was just anxious about my first tournament duel, but I don't think that was it. I've been anxious before, like when I have to give a speech at school, but this wasn't like that. I couldn't even read my cards!"

"What do you mean, you couldn't read them?" Marik looked puzzled by this claim, but at least he didn't look dismissive.

"I-I just couldn't! I don't _know_ why, but suddenly, every word I looked at was nonsense! A-And I couldn't remember the cards I lay face-down. One second it'd be in my hand, and I'd put it down and I suddenly have no idea what it is! I just don't know what happened to me..."

"It's okay, love," Marik murmured, cradling Ryou against him as he tried to calm him down. "It's okay."

Ryou's arms reached up around him in an embrace, linking his trembling hands together as they rested against Marik's back.

"That duel made me look awful," Ryou whispered, pressing into his lover's warmth as he tried calm himself. "I must have looked like an idiot up there."

"Don't say that about yourself," Marik reprimanded sharply, pulling away so that he could look into Ryou's troubled eyes. "You're not an idoit, and nobody thinks that."

"How do _you_ know?" Ryou muttered sourly, too fixed in his belief of how the others had perceived him to readily accept Marik's correction. Logic couldn't sway him right now, and even though Marik didn't consciously recognize that, he still did the best possible thing he could have done then.

He leaned forward and stole a kiss, sliding their lips together with the ease of an experienced kiss-thief. Ryou relaxed against him as Marik lifted one knee to rest it on the step just below the one Ryou sat on. His arm slipped around Ryou's waist, supporting him as their tender kisses persisted. Marik was no longer thinking about _why_ they were kissing; in fact, he wasn't thinking at all. What tore his lips away from Ryou's was the sound of someone clearing their throat.

Marik looked up to see Seth smiling bemusedly down at them from just a few steps up. The pair of boys blushed at the sudden audience.

"Be glad that it was me who came to check on you, and not one of the others. They'd never let you live it down."

He stepped closer and crouched down to begin gathering together the cards that had slipped from Ryou's hands, prompting Ryou and Marik to suddenly begin doing the same. Ryou accepted a stack of cards from Marik first, and then from Seth, but as Seth was placing the cards in his hand, he pulled them back.

"You're a good duelist, Ryou. Don't let one bad match discourage you. Understand?" His eyes were serious, and his tone was firm, and the inflections of his voice were different enough from Seto's that Ryou could actually believe it wasn't his friend. His expressions were an awful lot like Seto's, though.

"Understood," Ryou replied, and Seth handed him the rest of his cards. They all stood, Seth's regal posture seeming to set him apart from the casual teenagers beside him.

"Atta boy," Seth said with approval, patting Ryou on the shoulder. "Sometimes we lose in life, but the trick, my child, is to learn from each loss and move forward." Ryou gave Seth a small smile of appreciation, but Marik interrupted their moment.

"I thought _I_ was your child," Marik protested indignantly, adopting a small pout.

Seth chuckled and put an arm around each of them, pulling them close to his sides as he said, "You're _all_ children to me!"

Marik hugged Seth in return, quit pleased with the gesture. He'd received little physical affection when he still lived in Egypt, but once he'd had a taste of it, he realized that he'd been yearning for it his whole life. As such, he was eager to hug or be hugged in any circumstance. Ryou hugged Seth in return as well, but found himself thinking how _un_ like Seto such a gesture was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please review with your opinions, thoughts, and predictions for the story! What do you like that I do? What do you not like that I do in my writing? Tell me, and I can make future chapters a bit more to your liking!


	16. Dungeon

"Hey, what happened down there, Ryou?" Joey asked as the three teens—that is, the two teens and the pharaoh in a teen's body—came back into view.

"I think I just let the pressure get to me," Ryou admitted with downcast eyes, but Joey was quick to slap him on the back and say something encouraging as Mai watched them with amusement.

Marik glanced up at Seth with a questioning look, and Seth inclined his head ever so slightly. It wasn't just the pressure of his first major tournament duel that had messed with Ryou's mind; it had been the Spirit of the Millennium Ring. Seth hadn't been able to confirm that it was the spirit or not until he'd heard Ryou's description of events. The spirit, Bakura, was slippery and subtle, making him difficult to pin down. He was most dangerous indeed.

"Now the duel between the finalists, Joey Wheeler and Yugi Moto, shall commence!" Croquette announced, eliciting a groan from the lanky blond he'd named.

"Aw, come on! Don't we even get a lunch break?" Joey asked.

"It's not even lunch time, Joey," Yugi pointed with a small smile, amazed by his friend's capacity to consume food indefinitely.

"I'm still hungry," Joey grumbled, but Mai poking him in the side redirected his focus.

"Good luck out there. Give it your best shot, Joey." There was something sensual in her eyes, something sultry in her voice, and it was enough to make Joey blush and stammer his thanks.

"Can the duelists please enter the Duel Arena!" Croquette called, urging them on.

"I guess this is it," Joey said, looking to Yugi again and holding out his hand. "Don't go easy on me, alright?"

"I won't, Joey. We'll both duel our best so that the strongest of us can challenge Pegasus to win those souls back."

Everyone in their little group could feel the weight their mission, and Yugi couldn't help but glance up at Seth. The tall brunette turned his solemn sapphire eyes towards the shorter teen's violet ones and nodded in agreement. Seto, Duke, Mokuba, Adina, and Mr. Moto... they all needed to be freed. Now.

Yugi and Joey started their duel and Seth turned to Marik, who was comforting Ryou with a warm embrace.

"I'm going to retrieve the children from Pegasus' dungeon. I don't want them waking up there when their souls are released."

" _Will_ their souls be released?" Mai asked dubiously, still unsure how much of this she believed.

"I have faith," Seth answered simply.

"Wait, Pegasus is keeping Mokuba and Adina in a _dungeon_?" Anzu asked in disgusted disbelief. "What a monster!" She threw a glare at him from across the room, then turned back to Seth. "You'll need help to carry them both, so I'll go with you. You three need to cheer them on while I'm gone!" That last sentence was directed at Mai, Marik, and Ryou, who nodded in understanding.

"Thank you," Seth replied, a bit surprised by the offer, but grateful for it nonetheless. "Let's go."

* * *

"How are the brats doing?" one guard asked as he relieved the other of his duty.

"Still brain-dead," the other answered as he stood from his chair. "I don't really see the point in guarding them when they're like this."

"I guess that just makes this the easiest job in the world, right?"

"Wrong." Seth stepped out from the shadows, his Millennium Rod pointed at both of them, casting them under a hypnotic spell. Stepping closer, he demanded, "Hand me the keys."

The guard handed Seth the heavy key ring from his pocket, and Seth moved towards the cell door with the keys to figure out which one fit in the keyhole.

"What did you _do_ to them?" Anzu asked as she stepped out from the tunnel and stared at the guards in shock.

"I've merely… persuaded them to help us. Magically, of course," Seth answered as he fumbled with the keys. They clanked eerily in the otherwise silent room, the sound bouncing off the stone walls with a slight echo. Anzu, creeped out by the whole place, stood closer to Seth. She shivered and crossed her arms in an attempt to keep herself warm.

"Are you cold? You can borrow my coat," Seth offered, surprising her with his chivalry.

"Thanks, but no thanks. I'm fine." Anzu turned to look away from the blank-faced guards to look at the blank-faced children. "Oh, they look so sad." Her forehead creased with concern. "Are they really going to be alright?"

"They will be, as soon as their souls are released," Seth assured. He found the right key and heard the mechanism click within the lock. "Got it." The cell door swung open, and Seth let Anzu enter it first before following and kneeling beside Adina first to free her. There was only one key small enough to fit these locks, so it only took a minute for Seth to free her from the manacles and let Anzu pick her up.

"The poor dear!" Anzu exlaimed as she noticed the skin of Adina's wrists where the manacles had rubbed them raw and bloody. "How could Pegasus do this to _children_?"

Seth opened his mouth to answer, but a transmission coming through on the guards' radio transceiver interrupted him.

"We received a signal that the cell door has been opened. Is there a problem?"

Seth pointed the Millennium Rod at the guards again and spoke, his words repeated by the guard he'd chosen to answer the radio call.

"Everything is fine. There must be something wrong with the signal. I'll check it. The children are still here."

"Alright. Update us soon."

"It's kinda creepy that you can do that," Anzu said with a shudder, holding Adina more tightly in her arms.

"Then I guess it's a good thing I'm on your side," he answered with a smug grin before he resumed freeing Mokuba. Mokuba's wrists were in the same state as Adina's, much to Anzu's dismay.

"Maybe we can find a first aid kit on our way back," Anzu suggested, Seth nodding in approval.

"That's a good plan. We should be able to get them back without any trouble, so long as we don't get lost." Seth lifted Mokuba in his arms after pocketing the keys and hooking the Millennium Rod into his belt, then led the way out of the dungeon. Anzu stopped at the doorway, looking back at the guards.

"What about them?"

"They'll snap out of it soon enough on their own," he answered nonchalantly. After nodding hesitantly, she followed him out.

* * *

"Congratulations to Yugi Moto, the champion of the Duelist Kingdom tournament!"

"That was a great duel, Yug," Joey said with a sad smile.

"Indeed it was, Joey. You fought well." The two friends shook hands as Croquette approached Yugi.

"Yugi Moto, as champion you may choose either one of two prizes: three million dollars or the opportunity to challenge Maximillion Pegasus to a duel."

"I'll challenge Pegasus to a duel," Yugi answered without hesitation.

"Very well, then, Yugi-Boy," Pegasus crooned from his throne. "The duel shall commence after lunch."

"Boo-yah!" Joey exclaimed, excited at the prospect of food, even if it did come from such a vile man as this.

As they walked towards the dining room, Anzu and Seth rejoined them, Anzu carrying Adina in her arms, and Seth carrying Mokuba on his back, a first aid kit in one hand.

"Oh good, you found them!" Ryou cried, letting the children's corporeal freedom cheer him a bit. His spirits were still a bit low after his duel with Joey.

"You should have _seen_ the place where they were locked up!" Anzu was filled with righteous indignation, and she had a look in her eyes that said "I'd kick him in the balls if I ever had the chance."

"Can you please look after them?" Seth asked as he set Mokuba down on the floor beside the wall, and Anzu readily complied, setting down Adina as well and opening the first aid kit.

"What happened to them?" Yugi looked shocked; he'd already known that their souls were stolen, but why did they need a first aid kit?

"Pegasus happened to them," Seth answered as he stood. His eyes looked above and past Yugi as someone else entered the hallway. When the former pharaoh crossed his arms, the others turned around to see Pegasus behind them, looking surprised to see Seto standing again.

"Isn't this a delicious surprise," Pegasus intoned, trying and failing to keep the shock out of his voice. Seth stepped forward, positioning himself directly between Yugi and Pegasus.

"For a man who's used to getting what he wants, I suppose it must be," Seth retorted coolly. Pegasus was studying Seth with one narrowed eye and one glowing eye, his features contorting into a sneer of frustration as he peered into Seth's mind. At least, he looked into the part of his mind that Seth showed him: violence, war, blood, gore. Seth filled his mind with these things so that they created a cacophonous din that prevented the creator of Duel Monsters from seeing anything else. All Pegasus could know from invading Seth's mind was that he was an ancient soul too, just like the spirits inside the Millennium Puzzle and the Millennium Ring. He wasn't Seto, but someone else. Pegasus withdrew from Seth's mind, recovering his mask of serene superiority.

"It doesn't matter if you have their bodies back," he scoffed with a toss of his hair. "Because you're never going to win back their souls." With that, he strutted down the hallway, turning his back on them all.

"Hey, you wanna say that to my face, you big coward!" Joey yelled after him, shaking his fist in anger.

"Calm down, Joey," Yugi urged, grabbing hold of the back of Joey's shirt to keep him from running off to tackle Pegasus to the ground, which was what Yugi feared he _would_ do if Yugi didn't hold him back. "Getting mad isn't going to help anybody."

"Then can I bash his head in _after_ you beat him in a duel?" Joey asked, looking down at his shorter friend with the hope that he would endorse the blond's request.

"I don't think that will be necessary," Seth replied calmly, looking less tense now that Pegasus was out of sight. "There's a reason that he's collecting souls. I don't know what that reason is, but there has to be one."

"Why does there have to be a reason?" Ryou asked as he held Mokuba's arm steady for Anzu while she secured gauze around his wrist with medical tape. He looked up at Seth with a vaguely sad confusion.

"Because nobody does something so drastic and purposeful without a reason for it," Seth answered gravely. "And if those souls are necessary for whatever he's planning, then losing them will frustrate anything he was scheming, rendering a physical beating unnecessary."

"How did they get hurt?" Marik asked awkwardly, his concern more than apparent.

"They were chained to a wall in the dungeon." Anzu looked absolutely furious at this. "Anyone who chains children up in a dungeon _deserves_ to get beaten up."

"This is neither the time nor the place for violence," Seth cautioned. "Seto had quite the same sentiment when he found them, though."

"How did he know that Mokuba was taken?" Ryou looked more curious now. "My mom was trying to call him to tell him, but it kept going straight to voicemail."

"How did your mom know about it?" Mai asked, interjecting so that she could understand precisely how these teenagers were connected to one another.

"Mokuba was staying with my family during the tournament," Ryou explained, purposefully leaving out _why_ Mokuba didn't stay at his own home. It wasn't his right to share anything about Seto's private matters. His answer seemed to sufficiently satisfy Mai, so he looked back to Seth and asked again, "How did Seto know?"

Seth pulled Adina's paper airplane, now folded squarely, out of his pocket and unfolded so that the others could see the letter.

"He found this out in the woods. Pegasus must have told her his plan, so she tried to warn us."

"Good for her. The kid's got guts," Mai commented in praise, and the others murmured their consent.

Seth pocketed the note and looked back at Anzu, who was packing up the first aid kit.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm still hungry," Joey said, bluntly hinting that they should continue on their way to lunch.

"I'll take the kids to my room for now, then," Seth said, picking Mokuba up again. "I'll meet you there."

"I'll help you," Mai volunteered suddenly, surprising the others. "You can't carry them both at once, after all." She lifted Adina into her own arms, and while she didn't seem like she was used to handling children, she was competent enough.

When the others were out of earshot, Mai broke the silence.

"So, you're Seth, and Seto is someone else?" she asked somewhat suspiciously.

"Yes."

"Right." She paused for a moment to think, and Seth waited patiently, sensing that she was trying to figure out what she really wanted to ask him.

"So which of you did I kiss, and which one kissed me?"

Her question didn't faze Seth in the least.

"You kissed Seto, and I kissed you."

"Uhuh." She was still eyeing him strangely, and Seth could guess that he'd never have to resist her temptations again.


	17. Musuko

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let's play a little game: who can come up with the most reasons for why they hate Maximillian Pegasus? Please review if you want to see the next chapter!

"Croquette."

"Yes, Master Pegasus?" The head of security was at his employer's side in an instant. The competitors and their guests were feasting in the dining room, but Pegasus had gone to a room beyond them.

"Get me those children's bodies back."

"Yes sir."

"And Croquette, have them taken to the tunnels."

"Yes, Master Pegasus." Croquette bowed and left to follow his orders.

 _Even if I lose their souls, I can still use them in a blood sacrifice_ , Pegasus contemplated coolly. _The power will be temporary, though. I'll need to use it fast, which means, win or lose, I'll have to leave as soon as my duel with Yugi-Boy is over. Otherwise they may try to claim the bodies before I have a chance to use them._

* * *

"Is he really _that_ smart?" Mai asked incredulously as she and Seth walked together towards their guest rooms.

"He's a genius," Seth answered. "I've never met anyone smarter than him."

"If he's already graduated high school, he must be at least half as smart as you say he is." Mai thought it touching how enamored Seth was with his host. It was the most fitting word she could think of to encompass both his affection and his awe. Seeing Seth talking about Seto was actually pretty sweet. Seth seemed to implicitly trust Mai, maybe because they'd once been on the verge of making love. Whatever the reason, he was eager to speak about the tall brunette that had captured her attention on the ferry to the island, and she was eager to listen.

"He does his best for his brother, and when he—" Seth froze, his eyes narrowing as he tilted his head to the side slightly. "Did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" Mai stopped too, even though she'd heard nothing. Before Seth could answer, they were both grabbed from behind and knocked unconscious before they even had a chance to fight back.

* * *

Seth woke up before Mai. He was stiff and cramped, his hands bound with rope. He and Mai were seated back to back on a limestone floor, and the whole room smelled quite familiar to him. On the very edge of his hearing, he could also hear voices.

Incense.

Limestone.

Chanting.

Seth forced his eyelids open, although they were reluctant to obey. He turned his head in the direction of the only source of light: a row of fiery torches a hooded figures. It made him feel strangely nostalgic.

"Hm. Wh-Where are we?" Mai muttered in a low voice, sounding quite confused, and rightly so.

"I don't know, but I'll get us out of here. Stay calm." Seth started to twist his wrists, working at the rope. It only succeeded in burning his own skin, though, so he reached out and found Mai's hands. "I'm going to untie you first, then you can untie me," he whispered. "Don't let them know that you're free, though. Let me handle this."

"Okay." She sounded scared, but calm, which was the best he could hope for. As he tugged at her ties, he turned his head to the side and scanned the room. Then a sickening sight caught his eye: Mokuba and Adina were bound at the foot of an altar on an elevated dais at the front of the room. On top of the altar was the Millennium Rod. Nobody had noticed that they'd woken up, the cultists too busy with the "duel" they were attempting with large stone tablets carved with the images of monsters.

Mai twisted her wrists free and started pulling on the rope that kept Seth's wrist's together. The former pharaoh's blood was boiling, and the moment he was able to, he slid one hand free and pushed away the rough rope.

"Close your eyes," he ordered sternly.

"Why?"

"Just do it," he hissed, his anger bubbling up within. "And no matter what, don't open them until I say you can."

"Alright." Mai squeezed her eyes shut. She was a strong, confident person, but this tournament, for some reason, seemed to be pushing her to her limits.

Seth stood and stepped forward, arm extended as he shouted something in Hieratic Egyptian, and as such, Mai couldn't understand him, which was for the best. If she could understand him, it would frighten her even more. Having interrupted the cloaked cultists in their magic chants, Seth was now the center of attention, even as one of the monster tablets began to crack; that's what happened when you had weak magic and you were interrupted.

The Millennium Rod had begun to glow and levitate above the altar when Seth spoke, and now it flew across the room to be snatched out of the air by the hand of its owner.

Mai, with her eyes firmly closed, heard angry voices shouting in a foreign language. Seth's voice rose above the sound of the others, steady and deep, drowning out all the others. She could discern a strong light behind her closed eyelids, and though she was tempted to open them, she was too afraid to do so. The other voices stopped speaking and started screaming in panic, gradually fading into oblivion.

Then all was silent.

"Mai."

She opened her eyes and saw Seth standing in front of her, holding out his hand. She placed her hand in his and stood shakily, with his help.

"We're taking the children back to the others. How long has it been since we left them?"

"More than an hour," Mai answered with a tone of surprise as she looked at her watch.

"We're going back to the dueling room, then." Seth still looked quite angry, but it was a calm anger. He gently lifted Mokuba in his arms for what felt like the dozenth time that day. "I'm going to settle things with Pegasus once and for all."

Mai picked up Adina, grateful that the child was small and light, making her easy to carry. "Do we know how to get back there?"

"I'll find our way," Seth said confidently. "I've been roaming this castle all day, so I should have little difficulty getting us back." He glanced at Mokuba pityingly as the adolescent rested on his shoulder, looking for all intents and purposes as if he were peacefully asleep and nothing more. Turning to his fellow duelist, he asked, "How do you feel?"

"A little shaken up," she admitted as they started ascending a hidden set of stairs. "But I once went skydiving in New Zealand, so my nerves can handle it. I'll be fine."

"Very well. Onward and upward, then."

"What... what exactly was happening back there?" she asked after a few moments. "Or, what was _going_ to happen? I couldn't tell which it was."

"You'd rest more easily if you didn't know," the brunette answered gravely as they reached the top of the stairs and entered the dungeons. Pegasus' castle was more multi-leveled than anyone would guess from just looking at it.

* * *

"They've been gone an awful long time," Anzu fretted as she gazed at the thick black clouds enveloping both Yugi and Pegasus as they dueled.

"We can't send anyone after them, though," Joey said regretfully. "What if they get lost too?"

"What if they're not lost, though?"

"What do you mean, Marik?" Ryou looked frightened at the implications of Seth and Mai being "not lost."

"Pegasus has, um, what's the word?" Marik still struggled with Japanese, and he was speaking that now for the benefit of Joey and Anzu. They tended to get annoyed when Marik slipped back into Egyptian without meaning to and only Ryou and Seto could understand him.

"Security alarms?"

"Traps?"

"Henchmen?"

"Yes, that one!" Marik's eyes lit up as Joey provided him with the word he sought. "He has henchmen! They tried to stop Seth and I when we were rescuing the little ones."

"Of course he has minions." The blond teen narrowed his eyes as he crossed his arms. "Pegasus is a filthy, cowardly, nasty, motherfu—"

"There they are!" Ryou called in relief as Seth and Mai entered the balcony again, still burdened with the children. "What happened? What took you so long?"

"Pegasus' lackeys got us. Ryou, can you take Mokuba for me?"

"Sure." Ryou relieved the brunette of his twelve-year-old burden and carefully lay him on the floor, Mai doing the same with Adina.

"Pegasus' reign is over," Seth growled, extracting the Millennium Rod from his belt and twirling it impressively in his hand before holding it in an extended arm facing the mass of purple-black clouds swarming the Duel Arena. The Rod started to glow as the Eye of Ra simultaneously glowed on his forehead, his spirit invading the duel.

* * *

"Yugi, let me do this!" Yami insisted as the stubborn teen fought to keep himself on his feet. "The magic is too strong for you!"

"I must," Yugi insisted weakly. "Now, I play one card face-down and..." He swayed, the card slipping from his fingers to land on its space on the card-reader.

"Yugi, no!" Yami reached out to him with ghostly hands, but as the youth tipped backwards, a hand materialized behind him and stopped him from falling. Yami couldn't hide his shock as he stared up at Seth, who looked back at him with mutual respect, then turned to face their opponent. His hand was glowing with a warm, white light as he restored Yugi's energy.

"What are you doing here?!" the creator of Duel Monsters exclaimed with shock and fury. "This isn't possible!"

"I'm afraid it is, and your soul-stealing, body-snatching days are over." Looking at Yami and Yugi, who'd opened his eyes again and was looking perplexed, Seth said, "You two have been switching out during the duel to keep him from reading your minds, is that it?"

"Yes. It was working well up until he turned it into a Shadow Game," Yami answered, glancing down at Yugi in concern.

"If you want, you can merge together again. I can shield your minds for the rest of the duel."

"Thank you." Yugi's shadow inclined his head to Seth in gratitude. He didn't need to ask why Seth would be willing to help them like this. Not only was he a noble soul during the Monster World incident, he also desired for the six souls Pegasus had stolen to be set free. He missed Seto terribly.

* * *

"What's he doing, do you think?" Joey lifted a finger and was about to poke Seth's cheek.

"Joey! What are you thinking?" Anzu scolded, making the blond roll his eyes. "Don't be obnoxious!"

"I'm not being obnoxious!" he defended in annoyance. "I just want to make sure he didn't fall asleep standing up."

"I really don't think you should disturb him," Ryou interjected a bit anxiously, looking between Joey, Anzu, and Seth.

"He's helping Yugi. I already told you that." Marik jutted his chin and crossed his arms, a gesture he'd picked up from being exposed to the modern world. "I don't know why you won't believe me."

"I do, I just don't understand it." Joey squinted at Seth as he leaned closer in. "Someone dare me to touch him."

"I dare you!" Mai piped up, in the mood for some amusement.

"Don't encourage him," Anzu snapped, but that was all the motivation Joey needed. He lifted his hand and was an inch away from poking Seth in the face when the brunette blinked and awoke from his stupor. Joey cried out in surprise and leapt back, making the whole group of friends laugh as the solid shadows around the Duel Arena dissipated.

"Yugi Moto has defeated Maximillion Pegasus!" Croquette announced, making the teens, and Mai, cheer triumphantly. Yugi turned to look up at his friends, looking pleased and relieved. When Pegasus had invoked his shadow magic and turned their duel into a Shadow Game, he'd begun to fear that he'd never see them again.

"He's getting away!" Seth shouted suddenly as Pegasus fled the room. The tall brunette seized the balcony railing in both hands and vaulted over the edge, landing heavily on the platform below.

"What are you doing?" Ryou called, eyes wide as he tried to process what the spirit had in mind.

"Making sure he keeps his promise," Seth shouted back as he stood and turned to face them. "Once he sets their souls free, I'll get Duke and meet you outside!" He then turned and ran down the hallway at full speed. Luckily for him, Seto was quite fast, his strong legs able to carry Seth faster than Pegasus could run. Straight down one hallway, a right-hand turn at the end of it, then a short sprint that brought him close enough to tackle Pegasus to the floor.

"Release them now!" Seth growled, glaring down at the owner of the Millennium Eye. Their faces were inches away, Pegasus' natural eye filled with fear and frustration. " _All_ of them: Mr. Moto, Duke, Adina, Mokuba, and Seto. _Now_."

"Alright, _alright_ ," Pegasus muttered in defeat. "You got me. I'll do as I promised to do, just let me up."

Seth did so reluctantly kneeling on the floor beside the pale-haired man as he pulled the five soul cards out of his inner coat pocket. He splayed them on the floor, and with his fingers splayed over the cards, his Millennium Eye glowed. The pictures on the cards glowed whitely, and after a few moments, just as the images and the light started to fade, Seth was filled with a lighting strike of magical energy.

* * *

Seto was despairing of ever being set free when something changed. He could _feel_ his surroundings.

Water.

He was in freezing cold water, which filled him with panic, since he'd never learned how to swim. Never had the chance. For the first time since he'd been banished here, he recovered his sense of direction.

Up.

He knew where up was. Up was paired with the vague light. He fought his way up towards the light, and encountered a solid, translucent surface.

Ice.

He bashed his fists against it. He wanted to _breathe_ again. He wanted to feel _alive_.

A pair of hands plunged into the water from somewhere nearby and grabbed a hold of Seto's, yanking him in the direction of the hole. Seto latched on and, feet kicking, was hauled out of the icy water. He gasped and gulped in air, shivering as he dripped water onto the floor. His savior's pair of strong hands seized him by the shoulders and hauled him to his feet.

"Seth," Seto sighed in gratitude and relief. Never before had he been happier to see the spirit. Seth didn't look happy, though.

"What the _hell_ were you thinking?" he demanded, giving his soaked hikari a firm shake. "In what universe did you think that plan would actually _work_? Did you think that ignoring me, alienating your friends, and risking your own life would actually get your brother _back_?"

"I'm sorry, I—"

"Damn right you're sorry! Do you have any _idea_ how much I _need_ you?" Tears filled Seth's eyes as Seto started to understand that Seth was only angry because... "I need you alive, your brother needs you alive, the whole _world_ needs you _alive_!"

"What are you talking about?"

"That's not important right now," Seth sighed as he shrugged off his own cloak and wrapped it around Seto, pulling him close into a tight embrace. "Don't you ever scare me like that again," he continued sternly, although his anger was fading a bit now. "Do you understand, Seto?"

"Yes." Seto was still trying to catch his breath from being underwater. He put his arms around Seth in return, eager to soak in as much of his warmth as he could, since the chill of the ice had seeped into his very bones.

"I love you, _musuko_ ," the priest whispered.

 _Musuko_. My son.

"I love you too." Seto wanted to call Seth his father, but he couldn't get the word out. It had been so long since he'd affectionately addressed _anyone_ as his father that he didn't know how. So instead he whispered, "You're the best father I've ever had."

They held each other for a good long time, Seth warming the younger one with a subtle magic. They only pulled apart when Seto had a grand revelation.

"Wait, if I'm back, then does that mean—"

"Yes. Mokuba's free too. All of them are." Seth smiled reassuringly, pushing Seto's wet bangs off his face so that he could see his eyes more clearly. "We need to free Duke then meet the others outside. He was handcuffed to a bed, and I didn't have the key. I figured you'd know how to get him out."

"And, the kids?" Seto ventured.

"Adina and Mokuba are with the others," Seth assured, still smiling. "They're safe. Come, let's rescue Duke and take you back to your brother."

* * *

Seto woke up kneeling on the floor. Five blank cards lay in front of him with a small silver key on a string. Pegasus was long gone.

 _That must be the key to Duke's handcuffs. The metal matches them,_ Seth commented as Seto hesitantly picked up the cards.

 _Should I keep these?_ he asked hesitantly.

_Better we have them than somebody else. If we have them, then at least we know they're not being used against innocent people._

_Fair enough_. Seto stood unsteadily, still shivering a bit from the cold of the arctic pool in his soul-room where Pegasus had imprisoned him. At least he wasn't still soaking wet. _Alright, Seth. Which way do we go to find Duke?_


	18. Regroup

Pegasus had fled to the top of his tower, his own private bedroom. In his grief, he'd closed the curtains and left the room dim to make it match his mood. He tried not to look at the huge portrait of his wife, but it was the centerpiece of the room. How could he _not_ look at her?

"Oh, Cecelia, my love." He was sobbing as he fell to his knees before the portrait, his head hanging low as the tears streamed down his face. "I was so close to seeing you again, holding you again... So close..."

The lonely man dissolved into grief and weeping as he was overwhelmed with despair. It had never occurred to him to consider if Cecelia would have approved of his methods for resurrecting her. He had never stopped to consider how she would have reacted to seeing children kidnapped, even sacrificed, for her sake.

Thanks to his selfish actions, he would never see her again, not even in the Hereafter.

* * *

"Seto! Thank goodness, I thought I was going to be left here to rot." Duke sighed with relief as his professional partner entered the room. "Do you know how to pick locks?"

"Yes, but I have something better than that." Seto held up the key with a smirk. "I'll have to showcase my lock-picking skills for you another time."

"The quicker you can get me out of here, the better." Duke held still as Seto slid the key into each lock,

"They'll probably be outside somewhere," Seto commented as he and Duke found their way outside of the castle. "Yugi beat Pegasus, so the tournament's over."

"Oh yeah, how'd you do with that?"

"I didn't quite... participate in the tournament. Not properly at the end of it, at least."

"What do you mean?" Duke still found it hard to believe that Seto hadn't won the whole thing.

Seto explained to Duke about the children getting kidnapped, him infiltrating the castle, confronting Pegasus in the dungeon, dueling Yugi—at Duke's insistence, he explained specifically _how_ he'd won, which clarified for Duke why he was so ashamed of it—and then dueling Pegasus.

"So when I lost my duel with Pegasus, I also lost my own soul, my chance of winning back Mokuba's soul, and, least importantly, my title as champion. Yugi beat Pegasus, though, so I suppose that makes _him_ the King of Games now. Do you know how to get out of here?"

"Yeah, I think it's just around this corner." Duke took the lead, but he still looked thoughtful, as if there was something on his mind. "So, all of this magic stuff. It's real, isn't it?" he asked as he pushed a door open for Seto to pass through.

"It's as real as you and I are," the brunette answered gravely as he walked through the doorway. Duke dropped the door and caught up to him, falling into step beside him, their strides evenly matched.

"And you believe in all that?" Duke asked quietly, eyebrows drawn together as he struggled to accept it himself. "You truly believe it?"

"I have to." Narrowed sapphire eyes met puzzled emerald ones. "Otherwise, I'd be in massive denial, and it would get very difficult for me to make sense of everything."

"That's good enough for me," Duke replied, seeming satisfied for now. He believed in Seto, and if Seto believed in the magic, then he could too. "I'm sorry about your brother. I hope he's alright."

"I hope so too."

Duke glanced at Seto again, and couldn't suppress his smirk any longer. "Nice eyeliner, by the way."

"What?!" Shocked, Seto stopped short, then turned to check his reflection in the shiny glass of a framed portrait hanging inconspicuously on the wall. "Damn it, Seth," he grumbled as he lifted a hand to try and wipe it away. What on earth had he been thinking?

"Hey, don't do that," Duke said gently, pulling Seto's hand away from his face and turning the brunette to face him. "You'll only make it worse. Let me do it." He started pulling a handkerchief out of his back pocket and said, "Close your eyes."

Reluctantly, Seto did so, and with much fussing and flinching, Duke managed to remove nearly all traces of the make-up.

"Who's Seth?" Duke asked as he folded his handkerchief again and tucked it back into his pocket.

"It's a long story," Seto sighed, ten cast a sidelong glance at his friend, realizing that he still didn't know why Duke was here in the first place. "What were _you_ doing on Pegasus' private island?"

"Same."

They fell into silence as the two of them pushed through doors and strode around corners. Once the final exit was in sight, Seto couldn't help from quickening his pace. He wanted to see his brother more than anything else right then. The only reason Mokuba had been taken was because Seto had left him behind. He shoved the doors open, lengthening his stride, going so fast that Duke had to jog to catch up to him. Outside again, but nobody in sight. This looked like a small, isolated garden, fenced in on all sides, but Seto didn't look around. He ran straight for the gates, shoving them open, and was greeted by a cry.

"Seto!" Mokuba ran to his brother from across the courtyard, and Seto ran out to meet him in the middle, dropping to his knees and holding his arms out so that Mokuba could run right into him. As Seto wrapped his arms around his little brother, Mokuba began to cry. "You're here, you're here!" Seto's eyes started to water, and he closed them to keep himself from crying too.

"Yeah, I'm here," Seto whispered warmly, smiling a little in relief.

"Would you look at that," Mai murmured as she gazed at them both, a bit touched by the reunion. Neither brother heard her, though.

"I was afraid I'd never see you again..." Mokuba murmured, tightening his arms around Seto's neck as he pressed closer to him, reassured by his presence.

"I'll _always_ protect you." Seto was too focused on Mokuba to hear the approaching footsteps of their friends. "I never break a promise, remember?" He moved one hand to the back of Mokuba's head, gave him a final squeeze, then pulled back at last and brushed his thumb under one of Mokuba's eyes. "Come on, no more crying, okay?"

"Okay." Mokuba nodded and sniffled, wiping both his eyes with the ends of his sleeves. "I knew you'd never give up on me." He smiled weakly and wrapped his hand around the locket his brother had given him. Seto smiled back, pat his brother's head affectionately, and stood up again, his eyes falling on his friends for the first time. Ashamed, he didn't know what to say as they smiled back at him in relief and affection, so he was grateful when Joey stepped up and broke the silence.

"It's good to have you back, man." Joey extended an arm to Seto, who clasped it and drew his friend into a hug, prompting Mokuba to step out of the way before he got squashed between them. "I'm so sorry for the things I said," the blond whispered into his ear, which made Seto begin to feel the same relief that the others felt.

"Don't worry about it," Seto murmured back, the two of them speaking low enough that nobody else could hear them. "I deserved it." He released Joey, who stepped back, and Seto's eyes now fell on someone else he'd wronged in his cold rage, when all he could think about was rescuing his brother at any cost. "Yugi."

The shorter teen lifted his warm orchid eyes to Seto's with an expression of peace. "You don't have to apologize, Seto," he said calmly before the brunette could stop him. "Next time you're in trouble, though, come to us, okay? That's what friends are for."

Seto nodded, his sense of shame undiminished by the other's speech, but still feeling more at ease. There was something else that he needed to say, though. "Due to the circumstances of our last, the results were inconclusive."

Yugi nodded, his lips twitching into a smile as he and Seto shared a knowing look. "I look forward to a rematch." Yugi held out his hand and Seto shook it, feeling a bit of closure as he released Yugi's hand. Ryou, who'd been holding in his excitement up until this point, ceased restraining himself.

"I'm so glad you're back, Seto!" he enthused as he threw his arms around him, Marik just a moment behind him. Seto's look of surprise at being tackled was amusing enough to make Anzu and Yugi laugh. Duke chuckled too, which drew Mai's eyes to him.

"And who might you be?" she asked, one eyebrow arched perfectly as she looked him up and down. Duke smirked and walked closer to her, then bowed at the waist with a flourish.

"The name's Duke Devlin," he answered with the smooth charm of a seasoned courtier as he kissed the back of her hand. "You can call me Duke." As he straightened up and grinned, Joey began to bristle, narrowing his eyes at the other teen.

"Mai Kujaku," she replied warmly, then turned to look at everyone. "This is all well and good, but how do we plan on getting off this island? All the boats are gone, and I don't see any way to get back."

Ryou and Marik released Seto as everyone started looking thoughtful, trying to come up with a solution.

"I arrived here in a helicopter." Duke turned to look at Seto questioningly. "Do you think we could...?"

"We'd need a little time, but it's completely possible."

"What are you two talking about?" Ryou looked from one to the other, both of them smiling with a look of satisfaction.

"Give us an hour or two, and we'll be ready to take off," Seto said, looking quite confident in his statement. "Do you remember where it is?"

"Yeah, this way." Duke led Seto towards the hangar, and the others, intrigued, followed suit. They went down a set of stairs that wound around the castle and took them to the side of the cliff. Duke found the button for the garage door and held it until the huge wall of metal had rolled back onto the ceiling of the cavernous helicopter hangar.

"Wow! This place is huge!" Mokuba's eyes grew wide as they all entered.

Duke and Seto ran over to the only helicopter in sight, both of them climbing inside without hesitation.

"Wait a minute." Joey was just starting to understand what they had in mind. "You mean to tell me that you two are going to try to fly that yourselves?!"

"Do or not do," Duke called as he popped out of the side of the helicopter, looking smug. "There is no try!"

"Surely they have a pilot around somewhere." Anzu looked to Yugi. "Maybe we can find Croquette and ask him if he can send a pilot down to fly us home."

"You can do that while we figure out how to fly it, just in case you can't find him," Seto called, popping out from the other side. "And if you could take the kids back to the courtyard, that'd be great. We don't want anyone to get hurt." There were plenty of tools and dangerous things that anyone could have used to accidentally hurt themselves, but he was, of course, more worried about the kids. "We'll get you when we're ready."

"Hold on a minute: Who even said that we trust you guys as our pilots?" Joey looked like he honestly couldn't believe they thought they could fly without any training.

"If you really think that, then good luck swimming back to Domino."

The others laughed while Joey tried to maintain a look of irritation.

* * *

"How much fuel are we going to need?" Duke asked as Seto squinted at the operations manual.

"The amount of fuel we'll need is determined by how far we need to go, how fast we'll fly, how long it'll take, how much weight we're carrying, and the rate of fuel consumption," Seto muttered, mostly to himself, then pulled out a pen and started doing calculations in the margins of the manual. "How much weight do you think the helo can carry? I mean, we have more people than seats, so it might be too much to get everyone back in one go." Seto looked up at Duke contemplatively. "We can't just... _ask_ people how much they weigh, can we?"

Duke chuckled at him and replied, "No, I'm afraid that's not socially acceptable, but lucky for you, I'm excellent at guessing how much people weigh."

"I thought that was a carnival trick," Seto retorted with a frown.

"You only win if they _can't_ guess," Duke pointed out.

"But I thought that they had a meter behind the stand or something," the brunette persisted.

"Nope. Just watch me. I'll be back in a tick!" Duke jogged off in the direction of the stairs. He was gone for a few minutes, then came striding confidently back. "Imperial or metric?"

"Metric."

"In approximates, rounding to the nearest multiple of five..." Duke paused as he took a breath. "Twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty—"

"Oh, you're just counting," Seto scoffed, and Duke cast him a playful glare.

"I'm going in chronological order for your benefit. I can specify the weight by person, if that's what it takes to make you believe me."

"Do whatever works," Seto grumbled with a roll of his eyes.

"Adina's twenty, Mokuba's thirty, Yugi's forty—"

"No surprise there."

"Anzu's forty-five, Ryou's fifty—"

"He always did look light to me."

"Mai's fifty, thirty-six double-d—"

"Duke." There was a warning tone in Seto's voice as he erased Mai's bra size from his calculations. "Don't mess me up like that."

"Marik's fifty-five, you're sixty, and I'm sixty-four, precisely," Duke concluded, standing behind Seto and leaning against the aircraft. When his partner glanced up at him curiously, Duke smirked and added, "It's all muscle."

"Let's hope those guesses are good enough. Did you round up or down?"

"Down, I think. For the most part."

"Then I'm going to add five to each number, just to be safe." When Seto finished his calculations, he was able to tell Duke how much fuel they'd need added to the tank.

"We'll be cutting things a bit close but we should make it back to Domino without incident so long as the weather holds."

"I'll go find some, then."

A little while later, as Duke was filling the tank with the appropriate amount of fuel, he was watching with appraising eyes as the brunette flipped through the manuals with an expression of deep concentration.

"You know, you're lighter than I expected."

"What?" Seto looked at Duke in confusion.

"Weight-wise, I mean," Duke clarified, tilting his head to the side a little as he tried to determine a more precise weight for his friend. "I would have expected you to weigh more, considering how tall you are."

"That's not really your business," Seto muttered, looking back at the manuals as he attempted to close the matter.

"I suppose not," the mechanic conceded. He wanted to be respectful of Seto's privacy, even if he was concerned about him.

"Here." Seto handed him the operations manual as he continued his calculations. "You'll need this to know how to fly."

Duke took the manual from him and frowned at the table of contents. "Can't you give me the digest version?"

"I thought you'd appreciate a more technical description of how it works," the brunette replied without looking up.

Duke shrugged casually, then turned back to the fuel pump. "I'll get to it later." He paused, then added, not looking at Seto, "I... actually have dyslexia. Reading gives me a headache."

"Huh. I never would have guessed." Seto didn't seem to care either way, and Duke felt the tiniest bit relieved.

"It's the only reason I'm still in high school. I could have gotten my GED by now otherwise."

"After getting your GED early, what would you have done?" Seto couldn't help that he was curious about his friend's plans.

"Actually, that's kind of why I was here," Duke began to explain, leaning against the helicopter again. "I've been working on a pet project for quite a while. I was creating a game of my own: Dungeon Dice Monsters. I was in touch with Pegasus for a few weeks before he called me out here. For one thing, it uses all the same monsters as Duel Monsters, so I'd need the rights from him to do that, but I also needed an investor. We started negotiating the deal when I got here and decided to market it as a spin-off game. His company would handle production, shipping, marketing, all the rest, and I'd have a plump royalties check if everything went well." Duke sighed and twisted his fingers through his ponytail out of habit. "I would have liked to keep my game as my own and contribute to later upgrades and releases, but it was partly his too, because of the monsters." He sighed as he watched Seto thumbing through the pages detailing the inner mechanics of the helicopter's engine. "I always wanted my own game shop," he said wistfully, sounding almost nostalgic. "I always liked games, but some of them were... harder for me. Numbers give me the most trouble."

He paused in his monologue when Seto held up the a manual open to pages of an illustration that explained the connection between the foot-pedals, the rotors, and the levers.

"Thanks." Duke accepted it with active eyes, turning towards the helicopter and laying the booklet on its exterior as he absorbed the information.

"You know, I've been working on a side project of my own, too. Almost a year now, actually," Seto said. He'd never told anyone about it before, not even Mokuba. "It's a virtual reality computer program. It's far from finished, and I don't even have the technology to make it work, but..." He shrugged.

"But you're still hoping it'll go somewhere someday." Duke smiled a little. He understood Seto's thinking. He'd finished his own project, but when he was in the middle, still trying to figure it out, it felt like he was accomplishing nothing and that it would go nowhere. "I'm sure it will, but whatever you do, don't bring it to KaibaCorp. They'll steal it faster than you can say copyright infringement." Duke grinned as Seto chuckled in response. "It's good to be working with you again, Seto."

"It's good to be working with you again too, Duke."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually checked their canonical weights and rounded the numbers to something Duke could actually guess. All measurements are given in kilograms. Fun fact: Mokuba, Ryou, and Mai are canonically underweight. True story. I did the math myself, taking into account height, age, and gender too. Kinda sad. Anyways, this chapter was nearing five thousand words, so I just decided to chop it in half. My poor characters, they were supposed to get home this chapter. :(
> 
> Oh, and Pegasus is totally going to hell. -_- Nobody kidnaps children and gets away with it! Not in MY fanfic!


	19. Helicopter

"Seto?" Ryou was a few steps inside the garage with a cell-phone to his ear. The brunette looked up and couldn't help but wonder how long his hesitant friend had been waiting for them.

"Yes, what do you need?"

"My mother is wondering when we'll be arriving in Domino," Ryou said, trying to hide a slight smile of amusement. "She also asked, 'Where on God's good earth does he plan to land that thing?'"

Seto couldn't help but laugh. "We'll be arriving in Domino around three o'clock, give or take a half hour. As long as no bad weather pops up, we should be good to go. Duke, did you find the sonar equipment?"

"Oh, right, I was supposed to do that." Duke grimaced apologetically. "I'll get right on that when I'm done with this. It'll be mostly computers, though, so once I get it booted up, it's up to you to figure out what it says."

"And, where we're landing?" Ryou prompted.

"Industrial Illusions has an office building in Domino," Seto answered as he stood and dusted off his hands. "The roof has a helicopter launchpad for the use of company helicopters, like this one." He pointed to the I-squared logo on the tail. "We'll radio the Industrial Illusions air-traffic controller, assuming they have one on duty at the time. If we can't get in touch with them, we'll look for the next best thing, which will probably be the nearest empty field. We're loading enough fuel to get us that far in case we need to."

"Okay, thanks. I'll tell her." Ryou stepped out of the garage for a few moments to finish his call. When he'd hung up, he stepped back inside and walked closer to the aircraft. "She's relieved that everyone's okay. She panicked when Mokuba disappeared. Called the police and everything."

"I'm grateful that she cares."

"She's probably telling the police right now where Mokuba and Adina are. I hope Pegasus gets what he deserves." There was a tone of bitterness in Ryou's normally peaceful voice.

"I do too, but that's probably not going to happen." Seto's blue eyes narrowed in bitterness. "Millionaires like him always manage to buy their way out of an arrest."

"Not just that," Duke added, looking up. "But this island is in international waters."

"Are you _sure_?" This news bothered Seto for reasons Ryou couldn't understand.

"Yeah, he mentioned it my first day here."

"Damn it!" Seto kicked the side of the helicopter and turned away to pace in the other direction, tense as he ran a hand through his hair, which was becoming messier the longer he was in the garage.

"Why is that a bad thing?" Ryou asked slowly, facing Duke with his eyes still fixed on Seto.

"Because it means that unless he reenters Japanese waters or lands, he can't be arrested, charged, indicted, or prosecuted," Duke informed him, looking sour. "In other words, he gets away with everything, because he can stay here forever and have food shipped in from the outside."

"That's awful. Isn't there anything they can do?" Ryou's eyes darted between the two of them, Seto's previous exclamation making perfect sense now.

"Not unless we deliver him bound and gagged at the doorstep of the police department," Seto growled.

"Is the gagging really necessary?" Duke asked, eyebrows raised.

"No, but I'd still prefer it." Seto huffed with annoyance and went inside the helicopter, now out of Ryou's sight.

"Do you think we can take on the extra weight?" Duke asked, and Seto popped his head out again, looking thoughtful.

"I don't know off the top of my head, but I could check the numbers." Set hopped out, snatched the second manual off the floor, and flipped to the page where he did those calculations.

"Wait, you're not... _serious_ about this, are you?" Ryou asked, but neither teen answered him as they looked at Seto's sketched math, pressing the manual to the front of the helicopter and smoothing out the pages between them.

"How much do you reckon Pegasus weighs?" Seto asked after a moment.

"More than that," Duke said with a sigh, pointing to the number representing how much weight they could still take on without compromising their ability to get to Domino within reasonable safety margins.

"It was a good plan while it lasted." The long-limbed teen made no effort to conceal his disappointment as he went back in. "I'm not sure we would have been able to fit him inside, anyways. We don't have enough seats for us all as it is."

"Who said anything about carrying him _inside_ the helicopter?" Duke joked. "I thought you'd insist on letting him hang by a rope from the bottom and letting him go for a swim."

As Seto's rich laughter resonated from inside, Ryou's eyes widened in shock. "That's absolutely barb—" Duke slapped his hand over Ryou's mouth before he could continue.

"You know what, I think I'll go find the weather sonar systems now. The sooner, the better right? Ryou, how about you give me a hand?"

"Sure," Ryou answered after pushing Duke's hand away and giving him a confused glare. Duke rolled his eyes and put a hand on Ryou's shoulder to guide him into the back of the garage where a door, previously unopened, awaited them. Duke pulled the door closed behind them, and Ryou was willing to stew without mentioning what had bothered him, but Duke wasn't about to let it rest. His hand returned to Ryou's shoulder after flicking on the lights, holding him at arm's length as bright emerald eyes studied Ryou's face.

"How well do you know Seto?" the mechanic asked after waiting long enough to make Ryou profoundly uncomfortable.

"Fairly well." Ryou crossed his arms defensively. "I've known him longer than _you_ have."

"Then, unless you know something I don't, you know he's not the kind of person to actively seek revenge."

"No, he doesn't seek revenge, as far as I know," Ryou answered after a moment's thought, uncrossing his arms as he realized this wasn't going to be an argument. "He retaliates, he defends, but that's all. Even back before he and Joey were friends, they fought all the time, but every fight ended the day it started."

"If you know him well, you know that he doesn't have a lot." Duke's eyes were serious, almost sad, as he spoke of Seto. "Let him have his revenge fantasy."

"Okay."

Duke dropped his hand from Ryou's shoulder and stepped further into the room.

"Looks like we found what we're looking for."

* * *

"We have more people than seats, so it's going to be a tight squeeze," Duke said as he handed headsets to all of their passengers as they boarded one by one. "Please wear these at all times to protect your ears. They are equipped with short-wave radios so we can still talk to each other. Both children must sit on someone's lap, and a couple people may have to double buckle."

He handed the last headset to Joey, who commented, "You sound just like a flight attendant."

"That's kinda the idea." Duke rolled his eyes before closing the door behind Joey and joining Seto in the cockpit, where his partner was just starting the engines.

"Pre-take-off checks complete," the brunette informed him. The garage door was open, ready for their departure. "Everyone buckled in?"

"As best as we can manage," Yugi answered, speaking for them all. It _was_ cramped, but they weren't terribly uncomfortable.

"Would you like to go through the emergency procedures, O captain, my captain?" Duke smiled at Seto with easy-going amusement.

"It mostly all boils down to don't do anything stupid. If you have to consider whether or not something is stupid, then it probably is. In the event of an emergency landing—"

"Stick your head between your knees and kiss your bum goodbye!" Duke interjected with a wide grin.

Mokuba and Adina started giggling; they didn't feel the weight of the risk yet. This still felt like a game to them. They trusted Seto too much to believe that they would crash.

"Duke—"

"You got something to add to that?"

Seto rolled his eyes and retorted, "I was going to say, 'Stay calm and let women and children out first,' but if all goes well, it won't matter either way." He and Duke exchanged a grim look before returning their gazes to the instruments panel and turning on the rotors. Getting out of the helicopter hangar would be the trickiest part.

* * *

"I-squared tower, this is Zulu Echo Foxtrot Romeo requesting current weather conditions in Domino."

"Zulu Echo Foxtrot Romeo, this is I-squared tower. Current weather is sunny with low winds from the north-east."

"Thank you, over." Seto looked to Duke. "Want me to take controls for the landing?"

"Yeah, my hands are starting to cramp up." Duke looked relieved, and Seto placed his feet on the pedals, seizing the throttle and the control lever again. "You ready?" Duke asked, and when Seto nodded, he flipped a few switches.

"I have control."

The vehicle lurched a little, but remained relatively steady.

"Are you sure you know how to land this thing?" Mai asked dubiously from the back.

"No, but I don't need any back-seat pilots," Seto sighed, clearly irritated.

"It's so cool that you're going to land a helicopter, Seto! Just wait till I tell Amane about this!" Mokuba was immensely proud of his brother.

"Who's Amane?"

"My girlfriend." Mokuba answered Mai with a hint of vanity.

"Mokuba, what did I tell you about calling her your girlfriend?" Seto prompted with a disapproving tone.

The child sighed heavily and answered, "That I'm not allowed to until I'm twenty-five."

Seto's peers snickered, but he was grateful when none of them commented on it.

"Amane is my little sister," Ryou clarified, slightly adjusting Mokuba's position on his lap. Beside him, Adina was perching on Anzu's, looking content and sleepy as she cuddled with the teenager. She'd imprinted on her at Death-T and now that they'd met again, she clung to her and her alone. "She's in Mokuba's class at school."

"Twenty-five? Really?" Duke asked, glancing at Seto in amusement.

"He's a _child._ If I set the bar high enough, he won't try to haggle the age lower," Seto answered, feeling the need to justify himself.

"I can still hear you!" Mokuba crossed his arms indignantly as Adina giggled at them.

Seto rolled his eyes and deflected the matter entirely. "How about you just go back to playing the game."

"You're not going to play?" Anzu asked in surprise. "But you're the best at it!"

"I need to focus on flying the helicopter, but thank you."

"Where did we leave off?"

"I think it was Joey's turn again."

"Okay then: I went through customs and all I had to declare was some jelly from New Delhi, a speedo from Toledo, a beret from San Jose, green tea from Hawaii, a violin from Berlin, some cattle from Seattle, a cow from Glasgow, gin from Berlin, some stew from Peru, a daffodil from Brazil, some pork from New York, a chalice from Dallas, some maracas from Caracas, a comb from Rome, and... a spring from Beijing!" Joey looked quite proud of his contribution.

The game continued until they were quite close to Domino, at which point Seto asked for everyone to be quite so he could focus. It was one thing to be flying out over the middle of the ocean where they were the only people around for miles. It was another thing entirely to be flying out over a metropolitan city where they were openly visible and could potentially crash into a skyscraper. Duke communicated with the air traffic controller since Seto didn't have any free hands to do so himself.

When they landed, the Industrial Illusions employees were quite confused by the pilots who exited the cockpit. Duke and Seto explained that they couldn't find any certified pilots on the island and they'd had to take matters into their own hands in order to return, so the employees tentatively accepted their reasons and decided not to report them. Or press charges for their unauthorized use of their helicopter.

"It's not as if we were stealing it," Duke said with a smug look. "It was a hijacking at worst."

The group was ushered inside, and the ATC assigned an intern to help them all get home. Adina was easy enough to take care of. All she had to do was call her home and tell them where she was, and a limo was immediately on its way to pick her up. Mai called a cab and bid everyone farewell, promising that she'd see them again at the next Duel Monsters tournament. Joey regretted not getting her number before she left. Duke's motorbike was in the Industrial Illusions parking garage, so he took Joey back to the marina where he'd left his car. Ryou's mom arrived to pick them up about ten minutes after they landed. She texted Ryou when she arrived, and they all went downstairs to meet her.

Amane and Miya were standing outside the van when the group of teens exited the front doors of the office building, and the instant Mokuba was outside, Amane dashed forward to throw herself at him. They hugged tightly standing in the middle of the sidewalk.

"Oh, I'm so glad that you're alright." Ryou's mother sighed with relief, looking a little frazzled. Ryou smiled apologetically as he approached her and gave her a hug, feeling guilty for leaving her home alone with no one to help take care of the kids. Then again, he _had_ left Marik with her, who'd then snuck onto the ferry with Anzu...

"Thank you for coming to pick us up, Mrs. Bakura," Anzu said politely as the younger ones finally broke from their embrace and began to sign to each other, still in a little world of their own. Seto was keeping an eye on them, though.

"Oh, it's no trouble, dear," she replied, smiling warmly. "You all can come over to our house for the rest of the day, if you like."

"Do you think you could drop me off at the hospital first?" Yugi asked, looking anxious. "My mom's there with my grandfather, and I want to see how he's doing."

"Of course. Which one is he at?"

Yugi told Ryou's mom which hospital his grandfather had been admitted to and they all climbed into the van. It was also a tight squeeze, like the helicopter, but not as bad. They left Yugi and Anzu at the hospital then went home. Seto and Mokuba stuck around for a couple hours, playing games with Ryou, Marik, and Amane. They probably would have stayed until dinner, as Ryou's mother had invited them to do, but Seto got a call from Duke that changed his plans.

"It's been a couple weeks since we've seen each other, how about we go out to do some catching up?" Duke asked casually.

"Go out?"

"Yeah, I'll take you and Mokuba out to dinner. It'll be fun."

Seto bit his lip as he thought about the offer, then said, "Do you have room for the three of us on your bike?"

"Of course I do, but I was thinking Joey could join us. He'd give us all a ride. If you say yes, I'll let him know that we're on for tonight and tell him to pick you up. Where are you right now?"

"Wait, hold on, I haven't said yes yet." Duke was moving too quickly through his plans for Seto to make up his mind.

"Come on, Seto. You and I both know that you don't want to go home yet." Duke's tone was knowing, almost sympathetic. "Like I said, it'll be fun." When Seto still hesitated, he added, "Mokuba will like it. It'll be good for him, besides."

"We're still at Ryou's house," Seto answered with a sigh. When Duke put it that way, he couldn't say no. Mokuba got along with Duke and Joey, too. He liked them, and Seto was glad that Mokuba liked his friends, but beyond that, he thought it'd be good for Mokuba to spend some time having fun after his unpleasant experience. He didn't want his brother to become fixated on his abduction or his imprisonment or the time he'd spent with his soul separated from his body. He didn't want Mokuba to be traumatized because Seto hadn't been able to protect him.

Dinner _was_ fun, and Seto was glad that he'd let Duke talk him into it. Joey and Duke argued over picking up the tab while Seto insisted on paying the tip.

Joey dropped Duke off at home first, then did the same for Seto and Mokuba. Seto tried to tell him that he could drop them off and let them walk the rest of the way, but Joey was happy to take the time to drive them home. He wasn't keen on returning to his own home where his detached, yet critical, parents awaited him. This made Joey the only friend who'd seen the part of town where the brothers lived with their neglectful father. He followed Seto's directions and didn't comment when they arrived, just wished them a goodnight and promised to catch up with Seto soon. After all, people had been going in every direction during the Duelist Kingdom finals. No single person yet knew everything that had happened, and collectively they were still trying to put all the pieces together.

The moment Seto and Mokuba walked through the door to their apartment, their father was there, grabbing Seto by the front of his shirt and shoving him against the door.

"Where the hell have you been?" he demanded, clearly furious. Good God, he was sober. He was always harder to handle when he was sober.

"Go, Mokuba," Seto said calmly. He didn't need to be told twice. He dashed away in the direction of their bedroom.

"Where is it?"

"Where's what?"

Seto was slammed against the door again, and he could have sworn that he heard the wood crack behind his head.

"Don't get smart with me," he father sneered, Seto's fists clenching at his sides. "Where's the money?"

" _My_ money, you mean?" He'd put nearly all of it into a savings account a week before they left for Duelist Kingdom—not even a checking account, because a checking account could be withdrawn from via ATM, which his father _did_ have access to. He'd be making weekly visits to the bank unless he updated his files with Human Resources at KaibaCorp and opted-in to direct deposit. In the event of an emergency, he'd written the account and pin numbers on a small slip of paper and tucked it behind the pictures in Mokuba's and Seto's lockets; the only one who knew it was there was Joey, so that in case anything happened to him, Mokuba wouldn't be left with nothing. And he knew that something might happen to him; it was normal to hear gun-shots exchanged at least once a night in their part of town. It was only a matter of time until their luck ran out and he got caught in the middle of something violent.

Even now, though, he was caught in something violent. Every aspect of his life was saturated with violence. His father threw a punch aimed at his son's face, but Seto ducked under his arm and wrenched free from the grasp on his shirt. His first thought was to grab the first thing his hands found, but the only thing on the kitchen counter was a newspaper, and that would hardly do him any good. While his eyes still sought a weapon, his father turned and tackled him to the floor. That's when the fight really began.

Father and son grappled in a nasty bout of wrestling that gradually shifted from the kitchen to the living room, where empty beer bottles were just within reach. While his father shouted insults, Seto did his best to keep his mouth shut. In the back of his mind, he kept seeing Mokuba's frightened face from the last time something like this happened. Seto was only subdued when his father grabbed a bottle before he could and smashed it against the side of the teen's head.

Mokuba heard the crash of the bottle and flinched. He bit his lip as he stared at the bedroom door, wishing that he could intervene. Seto was always protecting him, always standing between Mokuba and every threat they faced. Mokuba appreciated his brother and every sacrifice he'd made for him—even though he had no idea just how _much_ Seto had sacrificed on his behalf—but he wished that Seto didn't have to suffer so much. He crept up to the door and listened carefully, a morbid sense of curiosity taking hold of him.

"Just cooperate next time, and we can do without this mess," Mokuba heard their father say. His statement was punctuated by a slamming door. Mokuba sighed with relief. He was gone. They were safe. He unlocked the door and started changing into his pajamas, expecting Seto to come in any moment now. A couple minutes went by as Mokuba changed and brushed his knotty hair, getting ready for bed, but Seto still didn't appear. Worried, he left the safety of their room to check on his brother. What he saw made him gasp.

"Seto!" He ran over to his brother's side where he lay unconscious on the floor. He shook his shoulder and repeated his name, but to no avail. His young heart pounded rapidly in his chest as panic seized him. Seto had prepared him for this kind of situation, though. Instructions on what to do in the event of an emergency had been drilled into his head quite faithfully, so Mokuba reached for his brother's cell-phone before he did anything else.

"Hello?"

"Joey, come back! I need your help!"

"Calm down, Mokuba. What's wrong?"

"Seto's hurt and he won't wake up!" His voice went shrill as he struggled to speak without shouting outright.

"I'll be right there." Joey swerved as he turned his car around in an empty intersection and accelerated. "Just stay on the phone with me, Mokuba. Everything's going to be okay."


	20. Waffles

"What's your apartment number?" Joey asked as he locked his car and shoved his keys into his pocket, letting his long legs carry him far into the building and straight to the stairs. Mokuba's answer confirmed his assumption that they were not on the first floor. Joey only hung up once he was outside their door, reaching for the handle. Mokuba was close to tears as he sprang up from the floor, Seto's cell still in his hand.

"It's gonna be okay," Joey said before the child could say anything. He walked briskly over to both of them and knelt beside Seto, prompting Mokuba to do the same. While the blond was focused on the immediate danger, he still noticed the amber bottles, the acrid air, the dingy walls. The broken glass by Seto's head was more concerning than anything else.

"Tell me what happened," Joey asked; Mokuba had been too distressed on the phone to tell him, but now that he was here in person, he seemed to have calmed down a bit. Joey gently rolled Seto onto his back, revealing a dark red gash flecked with sparkling amber crumbs on the side of his head. Joey tried to block the wound from Mokuba's view, not wanting to upset him further.

"When we got home, our dad was..." He struggled to find the right word even as he tried not to look at the blood. "Angry. He grabbed Seto, and Seto told me to leave, so I went to our room and locked the door, like I always do." Mokuba paused to swallow hard, his hands shaking as much as his voice did. "I could hear them fighting. Dad was shouting. I heard the glass break and Dad slammed the door when he left. Then I came out and he was like this."

"Seto, can you hear me? Seto?" Joey's calls were unanswered, and he knew there was only one thing left he could do. He pulled out his phone again and started dialing 911. "Mokuba, get me a towel." The raven-haired child got up and dashed away just as the dispatcher answered Joey's call and started asking questions.

Joey stayed remarkably calm as he applied pressure to the wound with the towel he was given and kept talking with the dispatch on the phone, simultaneously trying to keep Mokuba from dissolving into hysterics. Seto woke up a few minutes into the call, and Joey managed to keep him talking. He tried to sit up, insisting that he was fine, but Joey stopped him.

"You're not fine, Seto, you're bleeding, and you need to lay still," Joey said, repeating things the dispatcher told him to say.

"But he _is_ okay," Mokuba insisted hopefully, reaching out to clasp his brother's hand as slow blue eyes found his tear-stained face. "He's awake now, he's okay. He doesn't have to leave." Mokuba looked frightened at the prospect of his brother being taken away, even if he was only being taken to the hospital.

"I'm sorry Mokuba, but he _does_ have to go, and you know it." This was hard for Joey. He needed to be the calm one, the mature one, the controlled one. He needed to comfort Mokuba and save Seto and make a plan for what they were going to do. He needed to be the adult in a home that wasn't even his. "They'll be here in just a few more minutes, just stay awake until then, okay, Seto?" he pleaded. The brunette looked sleepy and irritated more than anything else. He didn't even look like he was in pain.

"Who's coming?" Seto asked, his voice weak in a way that frightened his brother. Seto never sounded weak like that.

"The paramedics are coming. They'll take you to the hospital so they can stitch you up and check your brain."

"Mokuba's right; I'm fine." Seto made another attempt to sit up, making Joey frustrated.

"You are going to lay down right there or so help me I will hold you down," Joey snapped, his brown eyes burning fiercely. "You are going to the hospital whether you like it or not, because it's what you _need_."

"Okay." Seto gave in much more easily than Joey expected him to, even with the head injury.

"Mokuba, do you see the Millennium Rod?" Joey asked, and Mokuba looked at him in confusion.

Mokuba looked back at the blond in confusion. "The what?" He hadn't known that the item had a name.

"That." Joey nodded in the direction of the golden artifact poking out from within Seto's coat. "Can you please take that out so it's out of the way?"

"O-Okay." Mokuba reached down and gently pulled it out, holding it in front of his chest with both hands, eyes round as he started to seem calmer, shocked into numbness.

"Yes, it's the building with the red convertible parked in front of it," Joey said into the phone. It occurred to him that he was fortunate his car was still there. "Mokuba, when they get here, I need you to stand back and let them do their thing, okay?" Mokuba nodded. "And when they take him to the ambulance, we're gonna follow him in my car, okay?" Mokuba nodded again, feeling slightly comforted by the assurance that he wasn't going to be left behind.

A knock on the front door and an announcement of their presence alerted them to the arrival of the paramedics.

"Mokuba, get the door for them."

The child hopped up to obey Joey, and once he opened the door, all Mokuba could grasp was the flurry of activity, the voices of strangers, and the pressure of Joey's hand on his shoulder as they stood aside, watching and waiting. Joey grabbed Seto's empty wallet off the floor before they followed the paramedics out. He paused and considered cleaning the blood off the floor, but decided that now wasn't the time.

* * *

Joey and Mokuba, who was still wearing his pajamas, sat in the waiting room, neither of them in the mood to talk.

"He's going to be fine, you'll see," Joey said every several minutes, trying to sound convincing. Mokuba stared blankly ahead and tried not to cry. When a nurse finally approached them with an update on the brunette, Joey stood up, wringing his hands nervously. "How is he?"

"He's fine," she assured, making them both sigh with relief. "We cleaned the wound, gave him some stitches, and he's sleeping off the anesthetic now. The x-rays didn't show any bone fractures, but he was complaining of a strong head-ache, so in the morning we're going to give him an MRI to check for any signs of a concussion."

"So you're keeping him overnight?"

"Yes, but one night should be enough."

"That's good. See? I told you he'd be alright." Joey pat Mokuba on the head, but the child didn't look the least bit cheered up. "We'll come back tomorrow then to take him home. Thank you for telling us." He nodded appreciatively to the nurse, who reciprocated and left them with a conventional verbal parting.

"Let's go home, Mokuba. You can stay at my house tonight."

"I'm not leaving." He looked up at Joey with solemn grey eyes. "I'm not leaving him here alone."

"He's just going to be asleep—"

"He wouldn't leave me if it were the other way around," Mokuba insisted, looking quite determined. "If he won't leave me, then I won't leave him."

"Yes, but your brother is just going to sleep from now until morning, and he would want you to get some sleep too," Joey said slowly, sitting beside Mokuba once more. It was almost midnight and they were all tired after such a long day. It was hard to believe that the final duels of the tournament had taken place just that morning. "We can come back before he wakes up again. Would you like that?"

"I don't want to leave him here..." Mokuba whispered, his innocent eyes filling with tears.

"Hey, don't cry," Joey urged soothingly, putting an arm around his slim shoulders. "Your brother will be just _fine_. There's nothing to worry about." Granted, there was a fair chance Seto might have a concussion, but saying that now wouldn't make Mokuba feel any better.

"People _die_ in hospitals, Joey," the raven-haired child whispered, looking at the blond teen with such fear that Joey couldn't take it anymore.

"Mokuba, there is _absolutely_ no way that your brother is going to die between now and tomorrow morning." He spoke with as much energetic confidence as he could muster at this time of night. "I promise you."

Mokuba sniffled and nodded a little, trying to believe him.

Joey gave Mokuba a little nudge with his arm and said, "Would some ice cream make you feel better?"

The grey-eyed child smiled a little bit and nodded.

"Atta boy."

* * *

The next morning, Mokuba woke up in Joey's bed to the smell of pancakes. Joey wasn't there, but the Millennium Rod—an item obviously precious to his brother—was still tucked under Mokuba's pillow. Believing it was safe there, Mokuba decided to leave it behind as he followed his nose down to the kitchen, where Serenity was making, not pancakes, but waffles. Mokuba could feel his empty stomach squishing and squeezing with desire as he stared greedily at the breakfast food. It only took a few moments for Serenity to notice him.

"Good morning, Mokuba!" she called out, smiling and sounding rather cheerful. "Joey said he left to get you some clothes from your house and that he'd be back soon."

Mokuba just nodded, not really knowing what he should say.

"You know, you can come down and eat breakfast, if you're hungry," she added after a moment, eyelashes low and coy as she shyly tried to entice her friend to join her.

"I'm _starving_ ," Mokuba answered, needing no further invitation. They ate their blueberry waffles indulgently, adding strawberries, whipped cream, and chocolate syrup to them before they dug in. Serenity didn't ask why Mokuba was there, and he didn't tell her. They talked about the upcoming school-year, the recent weather, the results of the tournament that had ended just yesterday. When they finished eating, Serenity started putting things away, so Mokuba offered to help wash the dishes.

"Hey guys, sorry I was gone so long," Joey said as he walked in through the door joining the house to the garage. "Morning traffic was bad." In other words, it had taken longer to scrub the blood out of the carpet than he had anticipated. He set down the backpack he'd slung over his shoulder and said, "Here you go, Mokuba. I got clothes for you and your brother. You can go change now and I'll finish the dishes." Joey sounded breathless in a nervous way, and he wasn't smiling, although he tried to sound like he was. Mokuba dried his hands on a towel and nodded, grabbing the backpack and going upstairs to change.

"His brother?" Serenity looked at the blond teen with curious eyes. Joey had told her earlier not to ask any questions and to just make Mokuba feel welcome, but now she was starting to wonder. Joey just shook his head, though. Seto kept as much about himself a secret as he could possibly get away with, and Joey didn't plan on ruining that for him. He'd kept Seto's secrets longer than he'd kept any other secret in his entire life—even better than he kept his own. Seto mattered that much to him.

* * *

When Seto woke up, his head throbbed and he didn't want to open his eyes. He could hear mechanical beeping and humming, distant voices hushed by the walls and doors between them and him, the faint chatter of inane television programming. He tried to think back to what had happened last night. He remembered fighting with his dad. He remembered being hit on the head. He remembered seeing Joey and Mokuba anxiously hovering over him. He vaguely remembered the ambulance, the hospital...

That must be where he was now. He knew he should open his eyes and sit up, but his eyelids felt heavy and his body was reluctant to move. He just wanted to rest here for a little while longer before he had to go back to life, to the real world. Didn't he deserve a break? Just a little break from everything? He'd been so relieved when they'd landed in Domino, because everyone was safe and alive, and they didn't have to worry about Pegasus anymore. Domino itself was more of a home to him than the apartment where he lived; he'd been so relieved to be home, but he'd been afraid to return to their apartment. He wished that he had a real home, a place where he could feel safe, a place he'd be happy to return to at the end of the day. Feeling disheartened, he mentally reached out for Seth, calling his name, but he received no answer. The Millennium Rod wasn't here, then. That made him a bit sadder. He wanted nothing more than to sleep for the rest of the day, but he knew that he wasn't so lucky as to get what he wanted, so he forced his bright blue eyes to open and blink in the bright fluorescent light.

At the same time, another pair of identical blue eyes opened slowly, carefully. Noah blinked, and lifted a stiff arm to rub at his eyes. He stood and stumbled forward, catching himself with one hand on the glass of the window in front of him. He squinted into the colorful sunrise and hated it.

"Oh, Master Kaiba! You're awake!" his nurse, the one who'd been caring for him all this time, exclaimed from somewhere behind him.

"So I am." His voice was indifferent and he didn't bother to turn around. "How long have I been unconscious?"

She answered promptly, telling him the number of days with confident precision. The number was far too high. It angered him. He scowled at the sky as he tried to piece the shards of his mind back together.

"Adina?"

"She's alive and well, sir. A week ago, she was abducted by Mr. Pegasus, but she's been returned unharmed."

He clenched his jaw, teeth grinding in frustration. "Go away. Alert Hobson that I'll be summoning him shortly." He had a lot of catching up to do.

Seto closed his eyes again. He wasn't ready to face the world just yet. He needed a strategy first, a plan of attack, and he needed to know what he was up against. Who had done what while he was asleep, and who needed to be punished for betraying him during his absence?

* * *

When Joey and Mokuba finally arrived at the hospital, Seto was awake and had already done the MRI. He didn't know the results yet, though.

"Seto!" Mokuba cried as soon as he saw his brother and ran to him, the child becoming tearful again.

"Hey," Seto greeted softly, putting an arm around his brother as Mokuba threw himself at the brunette. He seemed peaceful, but that was probably the after effects of the anesthetic. "Don't cry, Mokuba," he said, trying to comfort him as he plucked a tissue from the box on the side table and handed it to his brother so he could dry his eyes. "I'm okay. There's nothing to worry about."

Joey was still standing by the door to the room, just watching the brothers together. In the hospital gown, Seto's arms were bare, revealing a fresh bruise in the shape of a man's grip. Looking at it made Joey flashback to the hours he'd spent in the motel with Seto: seeing his scars for the first time, hearing him gasp with pain when he moved in certain ways, watching him wince when something hurt and he didn't want to say so. Seto'd sometimes been bruised in places that he refused to name, but even then, Joey had seen how just the act of sitting down would hurt him.

As Seto held Mokuba close, he lifted his eyes to Joey's, and he could see how uncomfortable he was with this level of exposure. He kept himself covered for a reason, and he didn't want Mokuba to see something he shouldn't.

"I brought some clothes for you to change into," Joey said, holding up the backpack. Seto's relief was visible and immediate.

"Thanks." He gave Mokuba a pat on the back before releasing him and taking the backpack from Joey, who then distracted Mokuba as Seto turned and ducked into the bathroom.

"You know, Serenity really liked having you over this morning," the blond informed him. "You two should hang out more."

* * *

The Millennium Rod was in the backpack too, and when Seto finished dressing, he clasped it in both hands, then closed his eyes and reached out to the spirit.

He awoke in his spirit room at the edge of the icy pool Seth had pulled him out of the last time they were here. Seth, however, was nowhere in sight. He was at one end of a dark, dank tunnel with stones on all sides. He called Seth's name, but when he received no answer, he started walking forward, searching for the pharaoh. The tunnel got darker and darker, the air increasingly thick with warm, moldy, humid air. He was starting to wonder if he ought to leave when he finally spotted a light at the end of the tunnel. He called for Seth again, his pace quickening. The closer he got, the shadowy light started to reveal paintings on the wall. Two-dimensional art of Egyptian imagery and hieroglyphics that Seto could read for reasons he himself didn't entirely understand. The pictographic text was tightly wrapped around the paintings, and he slowed his pace as he started skimming the words and following the story. He saw images that were achingly familiar.

The paintings were beautiful, the paint colors vivid and bright. But there were gaps, places where nothing was painted at all, but the illegible faint grey smudges there showed that something had once been there. When he finally reached the source of the light, he found Seth kneeling on the floor, his more ceremonial garments absent from his garb. He looked younger, too. When the Egyptian lifted his head to look up at Seto, chestnut hair flopping haphazardly into his wide eyes, the teen felt a pang in his chest: Seth looked no older than Mokuba was now.

"I'm sorry, I didn't see the bottle coming." Seth turned back to the wall and dipped his finely-tipped paintbrush into the dish of black ink in his left hand before leaning close to the wall and continuing his task: repainting all of the faded images on the walls.

"It's alright," Seto murmured, his fight with his father the last thing on his mind right now. "What are you doing?"

"I started to forget, so I need to go back." Seth sounded vaguely irritated, as any interrupted child might be, but his explanation didn't make any sense to Seto.

"I don't understand."

Seth huffed in annoyance and paused to look at Seto again. "I started to forget my past and everthing else. I need to rewrite everything that I know so that I don't lose it forever. If I forget everything, then I can't be of any help to anyone, least of all you." He spoke with slow, emphatic frustration, eliciting pity from his other self.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Seto asked, looking at the other small pots of presumably different colored paints, the paintbrushes in the cup by the pots, and the weak lantern on Seth's other side.

"Not now," he answered with a shake of his head. "Just let Joey take you home, take a nap, then you can join me here. I could use some help with the pictures."

Seto nodded, but didn't leave just yet. "How often do you have to do this?"

"Every hundred years or so," Seth answered dismissively as he painted a cartouche in bold black. "Now go take care of yourself. I'll still be here when you're done."

It felt like taking orders from Mokuba, which prompted another question to spill from Seto's lips: "Why are you so much younger now?"

"Because when I go back, I restart, _obviously_ ," he snapped, even though there was nothing obvious about any of this. Seth's eyes narrowed to icy slits as he glared at Seto once again. "Go, Seto. You have more important things to do than ask silly questions when your brother's worried about you."

As brusque as Seth was, Seto couldn't be mad at him. He was just a kid, after all. He was just a kid wearing a tunic trying to complete a task without being delayed by an unnecessary obstruction.

"Okay, okay, I'll go." Seto was entranced by this revelation, though, and he would be back quite soon for more answers.

* * *

The process of leaving the hospital went fairly quickly after that. The MRI didn't show any concussion, but the back of his head _was_ bruised (Seto had suspected as much). He wouldn't need to return for any kind of follow-up unless he started experiencing concussion-like symptoms. Earlier, he'd called his supervisor at KaibaCorp to tell him that he'd be in late, but at Joey's insistence, he called back and said that he was taking the day off.

"Don't _you_ have a job?" Seto asked Joey when he got off the phone.

Joey sighed theatrically and said, "Yeah, _technically_. I mean, all I do is shred sensitive papers at a bank. That's literally _all_ I do!" He led Seto and Mokuba out of the hospital and into the attached parking garage to the hospital building.

As they walked to Joey's car, Seto made another call to Ryou, who'd called him that morning a few times without an answer.

"Hi Seto!"

"Hi, Ryou."

"I got a little worried when you didn't drop Mokuba off this morning." Seto still paid Ryou to babysit Mokuba. "I was wondering if something had happened."

"Everything's fine," Seto assured. He didn't want to tell anyone else that he'd been in the hospital, because if he told them, they would want to know why, and he couldn't tell them the truth, so he'd have to tell a lie, and he was so _tired_ of lying to them. He was worried about what all this lying was doing to Mokuba, too. "Mokuba's at work with me today, that's all." It was the best excuse he had on hand.

"Oh, okay, well, I'm glad everything's alright. Oh, and Marik wanted me to ask you if you'd be able to come over on Saturday. I still have to check with Joey, but he said he wanted to educate us about Chuck Norris." Seto started to chuckle. "So I'm planning a movie night for all of us who were at Duelist Kingdom. Little siblings invited, of course."

"Yeah, we'll be there. I look forward to it."

"Okay, cool."

"You should invite Duke too," Seto interjected, sensing that Ryou was about to end the call and hang up. "I think he'd appreciate it."

"That's a good idea. I hadn't thought of that."

Duke wasn't exactly a part of their typical friend circle at school, but he was _Seto's_ friend, and he wanted him there. Seto gave Ryou Duke's cell number and hung up just as they reached Joey's car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to be awful to you fellow yanks and refer to soccer as "football" from this point forward, because it's only called soccer in America (in my experience) and I did set this story in Japan, after all. Besides, I'm feeling puckish. ;P Please review!
> 
> As Season One draws to a close, I would like to remind/inform you that when I post the last chapter of S1, I will also post "The Room Where It Happened," which is sort of a prequel to S0: it fills in all the events between the beginning and end of the first chapter, "S0: Prologue," so it will be focused on the hateful and odious Gozaburo Kaiba. -_-


	21. Think

Joey drove them from the hospital to his house, letting Mokuba and Serenity loose on the backyard with a football while Seto tiredly dragged himself into the living room, trying not to look envious.

"How are you holding up?" Joey asked with a note of pity in his voice.

The car ride had taken more out of Seto than he wanted to admit. "They said the anesthetics could still be in my system for another few hours, and that if I feel the effects, it might be best to sleep them off. I think I'd actually prefer to do that." He sat on the couch which looked much cleaner than their own couch at home had even been in its entire existence.

"You don't have to sleep on the couch, you know. You could sleep in my room. It's _actually_ clean right now." Joey smirked playfully, and Seto hesitated only briefly before accepting the offer. He doubted Mokuba and Serenity would be quiet while they played. Seto took Seth's advice and napped, visiting him in their soul room to help him with his painting.

* * *

Seto's eyes flew open as he was startled into wakefulness. What had woken him, though?

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

That was Joey's voice, and Seto sat up so that he could look at Joey over his shoulder. The blond was standing in the doorway. He'd come in just to see how Seto was doing with no intention of rousing him from the rest he needed.

"I forgot how light a sleeper you are."

"It's fine," the brunette assured, turning and swinging his legs over the edge of the bed.

"How's your head?"

"Fine. A lot better than it was last night."

Joey snorted. "I should hope so. Otherwise, I'd have to take you back to the doctor." Joey's smile dimmed a little. "Will you need help with the hospital bills?"

"Probably." Seto couldn't resist the urge to press his fingers to the wound and feel how the scalp had been altered by the broken glass. He found the stitches and ran his fingertips over the surgical thread. "But if they let me pay them bit by bit over a few months, I should be alright."

"Oh, yeah, here's your wallet." Joey reached into his pocket and pulled it out, tossing it to Seto. "It was on the floor when I got there."

"Thanks." Seto opened it and scowled. "He didn't leave so much as a penny in here, did he?"

There was only one "he" that he could be referring to, and Joey knew that.

"Nope." Joey leaned against the doorframe and crossed his arms. "But he left behind your fake ID."

The brunette narrowed his eyes at his friend. "It's not what you think."

"It's none of my business."

Seto hesitated, then looked back down at the falsified card. "I don't want you to have the wrong idea. I couldn't get a bank account that was solely mine unless I was at least 18, and I've been running out of places to hide my savings because he keeps finding them." He looked back up at Joey. "He's robbed me of thousands of dollars, Jo. If he weren't wasting my money on beer, cocaine, and lottery tickets, Mokuba and I could have moved out long ago."

"Like I said, it's none of my business," Joey repeated, approaching his bed and sitting on the edge beside Seto. "And if anyone asks, I don't know anything about it."

"Thanks." He closed his wallet and tucked it away.

"Does your dad get like that often?"

"He's never come at me with a weapon before, if that's what you're asking." That is, if an empty bottle counted as a weapon.

"If you don't feel safe there," Joey began slowly, aware that he was entering dangerous territory.

"We're fine, Joey."

" _Clearly_ not. I think that you should live here for a little while."

"What?!" Seto stiffened in shock; he'd never expected an offer like that from Joey. His first instinct was to recoil and protest in outrage.

"My parents wouldn't even notice! It would allow you to cut your losses and save up for a while and feel _safe_. Mokuba would be safer too." Joey began to list the benefits, ticking them off on his fingers. "You wouldn't have to keep paying rent on your dad's apartment, you wouldn't have to pay Ryou to babysit, you wouldn't have to buy food because you can share in ours, you won't have to worry about avoiding your dad or hiding your money or leaving Mokuba home alone."

After a pause, Seto replied softly, "That's the most intelligently I've ever heard you speak about anything. I think that bank is rubbing off on you."

"Having smart parents doesn't hurt either," Joey added with an eye-roll. "So, will you do it?"

"That's all contingent on your parents approving our presence in their house."

"Like I said, they're rarely home. They won't even notice. As long as I tell the cleaning lady to expect your presence, they're not gonna know."

"So we'd have to sneak around behind their backs, and who's to say that they won't call the police on us when they _do_ find out?"

" _If_ they do!"

"I _need_ to plan for that possibility, Joey, no matter how unlikely you think it is." They were clearly arguing now, but at least they weren't yelling. Yet. "I can handle the threats I face now, and if you're asking me to trade them for new threats, then I _need_ to assess them before I can make a decision."

"I don't think you _can_ handle them, Seto. Just look at the past twenty-four hours! You were in the _hospital_!"

"I _can_ handle him, Joey," Seto growled, eyes narrowing again. "I've been doing it for years."

"He's getting worse though, isn't he?" Joey asked, then huffed in exasperation, and as he continued, his volume began to increase, approaching the volume of a shout. "What if I hadn't been able to get there in time to help you? What if it was Mokuba who got hurt? What would you do then? What if you had gotten a concussion and weren't able to work anymore? You might have one now, and we just don't know! What if you get one next time?"

"He _is_ getting worse," Seto admitted softly, not even looking at Joey, instead staring at the clean carpeted floor as he tried to process all of this. He was trying to think, trying to make the right decision for both him and his brother. There were inherent dangers either way, but which one was riskier? "Just give me some time to think, okay?"

"What do you need to think about? It seems obvious to me that—"

"Where would we stay?" Seto asked, interrupting him.

"What?"

"If we came to live with you, as you're proposing, where would we stay?"

"In the guest room in the basement. It's more than big enough for both of you. We never have guests over anymore, so it's mostly for show, and the only ones who use the basement are Serenity and I."

"I'll think about it, Joey." Seto sighed and propped his head in his hand, starting to feel his headache return. "I can't give you an answer right now, but I'll think about it."

"Okay." Joey seemed to settle down after that. There was silence for a few moments, then he asked, "When do you want me to take you guys home?"

* * *

Noah Kaiba scowled at his cellphone as his helicopter approached Pegasus' private island. He currently owned 48% of Industrial Illusions stock, and when he took care of Pegasus, he'd easily scoop up enough stock to take ownership of the company as president, though not CEO. He'd still be making money off of the company.

"We will be landing soon, sir, on the south side of the island."

"Has Pegasus been alerted to my arrival?" he asked indifferently.

"ATC says that he wishes to be left alone, sir. As I said earlier, they recommended we turn back."

"Keep flying, then," Noah ordered with a scowl. "I'm not going back to Domino without speaking to him."

They landed twenty minutes later in front of the castle, Noah marching in like a firestorm, eyes ablaze and temper smoldering. When he made it clear to Croquette that he wouldn't leave without speaking to the creator of Duel Monsters, Croquette directed him back outside to the man's pool. That's where he found Pegasus clumsily opening his third bottle of wine.

"What the bloody hell are you doing here?" the one-eyed artist grumbled, having spotted Noah in his peripheral vision.

"I have business with you." Noah toed one of the empty bottles, kicking it into the pool as his lip curled into a sneer. "You disgust me."

"What business, besides insults, brings you here?" Pegasus muttered as he uncrossed his legs. He was wearing a plush bathrobe over a pair of swim trunks as he sat on a lounge chair by the chlorinated water.

"Duel Monsters." Heartless blue eyes glared at Kaiba's business partner. "As the creator, you would know the most powerful cards in the game, and those are exactly what I need: the most powerful cards in the entire game."

"The five pieces of Exodia the Forbidden One are scattered through the world," Pegasus answered automatically, hiccupping to punctuate his statement. He poured himself a glass of the crimson spirit and started sipping it.

"Every serious duelist knows about Exodia, though," Noah growled, stepping closer to hulk over the older man. "There has to be something else."

Noah hesitated, then sat on the edge of the lounge chair, careful not to touch him. Pegasus was morbidly drunk, and Noah could take advantage of that. _In vino veritas_.

"Exodia _is_ the most powerful Duel Monster," Noah said with a manipulative cadence. " _Except_ for…"

"Except for the god cards, of course," Pegasus answered, then froze, realizing he'd made a mistake.

"I knew it," Noah hissed, manic eyes going wide in triumph as he seized Pegasus by the front of his robe with both hands, spilling the man's wine on the plush white material. In the process, his hair was knocked aside, revealing the Millennium Eye to Noah's gaze for the first time.

"Where are the god cards?" Noah demanded, his eyes studying the golden one inset in the other's face. "Tell me, now!"

"I-I left them with her!" Pegasus spluttered, saturated with intoxicated panic.

"With whom?" Noah snarled. "Who did you leave them with?!"

"I left them with a woman," Pegasus answered, swallowing hard. "A woman in Egypt named Ishizu."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally supposed to be a lot longer, but I kind of just gave up on the random bits that I was throwing in. I looked at the half-written scenes, shrugged, and said, "I don't think you're worth it." So maybe you'll enjoy not having a mile-long webpage to read this time around. Only two more chapters left in the season! :D
> 
> And if my drunk Pegasus doesn't sound drunk, that's because I have little to no experience with real drunk people. Sorry. :/


	22. News

The next day, after dropping Mokuba off at Ryou's house, Seto was back at KaibaCorp, working with his new partner. He brought back the Duel Disk prototypes, which his new partner didn't seem to approve of. He suggested there were too many ways for them to go wrong and that they needed to shrink the technology further. As an engineer, that was his job, though. He started drawing up new plans while Seto tackled a debugging assignment he'd been given in his absence. They wanted him to correct the errors in a code written by another employee. He wasn't told what it was for or what it was supposed to do, which was normal at KaibaCorp because information was highly compartmentalized, just given the code's file location and a document listing all known errors.

On one monitor, he worked on the code, frowning at it as he tried to decipher its purpose and function. On his other monitor was a live stream from the Domino News Network. He liked knowing what was going on in his city and in the world, and after asking his partner if he wanted to listen to and receiving an affirmative answer, he let the volume come through the computer's speakers.

He was in the middle of rewriting nearly an entirely line of code when he heard his colleague ask him to turn the volume up.

"...has passed away. The creator of Duel Monsters was founding in his swimming pool with a blood alcohol level of point one eight," the newscaster said in calm, rapid speech, as they were trained to do. "Police have not yet released a statement concerning the cause of death, but they do suspect foul play. Noah Kaiba, the CEO and president of KaibaCorp, now owns Industrial Illusions, a company he was already in business with. Mr. Pegasus had no family, and has left the majority of his money to be divided among various charitable organizations. In other news, the city council will be voting on a bill tomorrow that, if passed, will institute a new..."

Seto sat for a few moments as he processed the information. Pegasus was dead. He had no grief for the man, but it still concerned him that he'd been murdered. If he'd died of natural causes, like drowning because he was drunk, they would have just come out and said so. And if Pegasus was dead, then where was the Millennium Eye? Would it be buried with him? Would the medical examiner that conducted the autopsy remove it? Would it find it's way into a police evidence locker and just stay there?

 _I suspect that the Millennium Eye has changed hands,_ Seth murmured in the back of Seto's mind as the brunette returned his attention to his work.

_What makes you so sure?_

_The Millennium Items tend to find their way into the hands of people who were either destined to have them or who seek to use their power for vile purposes._

_Should we be worried?_

_Let_ me _do the worrying, son, and we'll cross that bridge when we come to it._

* * *

"I can't wait until Dad comes home," Ryou said with a sigh as he and Marik got into bed late Friday night. "I hope he stops traveling after this trip. I don't like it when he's away for so long."

"I really like your dad," Marik said as he got under the sheets on his side of the bed. "I hope he stays home too." He gathered up his fair hair into a loose low clump at the back of his head and began wrapping a hair elastic around it as Ryou got up to close the door. He returned and flicked off the nightstand lamp.

"The places he goes to are dangerous," Ryou continued softly, settling in bed beside Marik. They were both laying down now and facing each other. "And I'm glad that he was able to save you and your family, but I think the time for those travels is over."

"Hmm." Marik's hand found its way to Ryou's cheek, and the Brit gave a small, contented sigh. They both snuggled nearer to the other, and their faces moved slowly, carefully closer in the darkness. When they first tried to kiss, their lips missed, and Marik laughed softly at the mishap. He stopped laughing, though, when fingers seized his hair at the roots and yanked him down into a kiss rougher than Ryou was capable of. A tight knot of fear formed in the pit of Marik's stomach.

_Not again..._

Marik was breathless when his partner pulled away and hissed, "You'll cooperate if you know what's good for you."

Of course it was the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, and of course Marik complied with his request for another blowjob, even though the spirit pulled Marik's hair so hard that his scalp ached by the time he was done. Marik knew that the spirit was perfectly willing to make Ryou miserable using subtle, vile tactics that Marik was incapable of fighting no matter what he said or did. He was inside Ryou's mind and had every opportunity to torture his innocent, sensitive soul, but Marik wanted him to remain innocent and happy. He truly believed that ignorance was the price of bliss, at least in this case.

The spirit wasn't content with just a blowjob this time, however. He was painfully hard and close when he yanked Marik off of him by the hair. Maybe it was because the Egyptian showed him such kindness, because he stroked Bakura's thighs and hummed in his throat when he sucked him off and held him close when they'd fallen asleep last time. Whatever the reason, Bakura felt an irrepressible urge to make Marik scream with pain.

"Face-down, now," Bakura ordered harshly, his breathing heavy. Marik understood, and he crawled up the bed so that he was beside Bakura and laying on his stomach. He was already starting to push down his boxers when Bakura grabbed his waistband and yanked them down all the way to his ankles. He situated himself between the boy's legs, palming his cheeks and pulling them apart so he could see his target. Then he made the mistake of looking up at Marik, who was watching him as he looked over his shoulder with those wide lavender eyes so similar to the ones _he'd_ had in a past life. Marik looked at him with pity as if he were anything less than a monster. Marik looked at him as if…

As if he were human.

Bakura pressed up close and used one hand to grab Marik by the hair yet again and shove his face into the pillow before momentarily sucking on his thumb and shoving it in hard enough to make Marik whine. Bakura stretched him with his thumb for only a few seconds, just long enough to create an opening. Then he grabbed Marik by the shoulders and shoved inside him. Marik was screaming into the pillow as Bakura ruthlessly worked his hips against his rear. It didn't take long for him to cum, much to Marik's relief, and when Bakura pulled out, he turned his back on his victim, wrapping the sheets over himself as he lay on his side at the edge of the bed, sinking into sleep mere moments later.

Ryou woke up the next morning in a particularly good mood, entirely blind to last night's incident.

When Mrs. Bakura passed the laundry room later that morning and saw Marik loading their bedsheets into the washing machine, she commented on how helpful he was, and Marik smiled.

* * *

On Saturday, Seto was still contemplating Joey's offer with no firm answer clear in his mind. That day, he received a bill in the mail from the hospital. He opened the envelope and looked at the amount, and his jaw dropped open. He sat down hard on the couch, letting out a sigh as it sank in.

He owed the hospital almost twenty-five hundred dollars.

"Is something wrong, Seto?" Mokuba asked, looking up from where he was sorting his Duel Monsters cards on the floor.

"No, nothing's wrong," Seto answered quickly. He didn't want Mokuba worrying about money, and worked hard to keep it out of his mind. Mokuba wasn't stupid, though. He was aware of many things, but for Seto's sake, he chose not to comment on them.

"Okay." Mokuba went back to his cards, puzzling over the different monsters, spells, and traps, trying to see how he could make them all work together.

Seto stood again and went into their bedroom with the bill in hand. He called the hospital and spoke to a couple of people as they worked on connecting him to right person.

He took a deep breath and said, "I was in the ER a few days ago for a head injury. I got stitches and an MRI. I got the bill in the mail just now. And, while I'm very grateful for your services..." He faltered, then swallowed down his anxiety. It couldn't hurt to try, right? "I'm sorry, but I just don't have the money to pay you. I can show you my pay stubs and receipts if you need proof. I just... I don't have the money. Is there any way you can reduce the cost?" He held his breath as he waited for an answer.

"If that's the case, sir, we can waive your fee," came the answer through the phone, and Seto was struck with shock a second time.

"You _can_?"

"Yes, if you can complete a form for us and submit it to our office, we can process your information and have the bill dismissed. We can fax it, mail it, or email it, whichever is most convenient for you."

"Email would work best," Seto answered. After an exchange of information, he hung up with a strong sense of relief. He hadn't expected that. Yet again, the world surprised him with a generous display of charity that he never would have expected.

* * *

Saturday evening at Ryou's house, everyone was there. Anzu was making the popcorn, claiming that Joey would be sure to burn it; Amane and Mokuba were dueling on the floor while Serenity watched, trying to learn how the game was played; Yugi, Joey, Marik, and Duke were in the kitchen talking with Anzu; Ryou was surrendering his battle with the VCR and passing it off to Seto with the hope that he'd be able to set it up for them. Joey had brought _multiple_ Chuck Norris movies, in both DVD and VHS format, because he couldn't decide which one was the best.

"Did you hear about what happened to Pegasus?"

"Yeah, I couldn't believe it."

"Do the police know what happened yet?"

"Their official statement is that he was murdered, but they don't have any viable suspects, which is strange."

"Yeah, I mean, he lives on a private island. You would think that the pool of people who could plausibly be suspects would be fairly limited."

"I still wish that we understood _why_ he did what he did," Yugi said with a sigh, looking troubled. "It doesn't make much sense."

"He was after the Millennium Items, Yugi," Seto interjected as he reached behind the TV to unplug the AV jacks for the DVD player. He hadn't been participating in the conversation, but he'd been paying attention. "And stealing souls made him stronger. He was after power, nothing more."

The answer didn't seem to satisfy Yugi, but the conversation shifted away from Pegasus, so they let the matter drop.

"Thanks for the help," Ryou said quietly, brushing away a few wisps of hair that had fallen down over his eyes. He was kneeling on the floor beside Seto, prepared to help in any way he needed to, even though he wasn't nearly as adept with technology or electronics as Seto was. "Today's been kind of a crazy day."

Seto glanced up at his friend for a moment as he found the AV input with his fingers as he tried to plug them in correctly without being able to see them.

"I thought you seemed stressed. Wanna talk about it?" His query was calm and curious, and Ryou looked almost relieved that he'd asked.

"We saw on the news this morning that political riots broke out in Egypt last night," Ryou confessed. "It's not just riots, though, it's an all-out revolt. There's no way in and out of the country, and even some of the journalists who were there covering the events have gone missing."

"What about your dad?"

"He was supposed to come home this week." Ryou started twisting a strand of hair around his finger. "We haven't heard from him in a couple days, though, and he usually calls my mum every day when he's away. Even if he only has a few minutes to talk, he always calls so that we know he's okay."

"How did she take the news?"

"She cried." Ryou rested his forehead against the outer edge of the dark wood entertainment center. "We all did, really." Ryou's eyes had watered, but since his mother had been weeping and his sister had been sobbing and Marik had been fighting his own tears, Ryou had forced himself not to cry. Someone needed to stay strong, and since his father was gone, that made him the man of the house. "Marik's brother and sister were supposed to come to Japan with my dad, so he was upset too."

"Your dad's a smart guy. I'm sure he'll be fine." Seto didn't sound especially compassionate as he experimentally turned on the VCR. A disgruntled electric whine sounded from the TV and he immediately turned it off, reaching behind the TV once more to adjust the jacks. He must have swapped the audio and video.

"Even so... things are getting really violent over there. Marik and I have been watching the news all day, hoping to hear that it was over." His voice was getting quieter, sadder. "It's still going, though. I think Mum's still watching the news upstairs right now."

"I thought she worked night shifts?"

"She usually does, but she decided to stay home tonight. She got someone to cover for her."

"Is she okay?"

"I don't know." Ryou looked up at Seto then as the brunette turned the VCR back on to see if it was working now. "I don't think any of us will be okay unless he calls." Ryou was aware of the real possibility that some violent fate may befall his father in the politically-turbulent desert country.

" _Until_ he calls, you mean." Seto's correction was gentle, and it took Ryou a moment to realize that he was trying to encourage him: "unless" implied that he might not call because he died while "until" implied that it _would_ happen sooner or later. "I'm sure your dad will call to say that he's okay as soon as he's able to do so."

"I hope you're right."

Seto turned on the TV, and a pair of DNN reporters appeared on screen to announce new footage being released of the conflict in Egypt. The images were disturbingly violent, and Seto could understand Ryou's concerns. He quickly changed the mode on the TV so that a blue screen replaced the evening news. As Ryou stood and moved away to ask Joey which movie they were watching, Seto felt Seth's incorporeal presence at his side, staring at the blue screen with an expression of utter shock. He looked like he was Seto's age, now. He still had many years of memories to reinforce.

"We fought for peace," the ancient spirit murmured softly. "We gave everything we had so that Egypt could have peace. Was it really all for naught?"

To see his homeland so torn with war and distress awoke something in Seth that he hadn't felt before, at least not in relation to his decisions as priest and pharaoh: doubt. Had their actions been futile? Had the selfless sacrifice of his companions, of _Kisara_ , truly accomplished nothing? The very idea of it broke his heart.

Seto didn't know what to say to him. Instead they exchanged a sober look, then Seth turned his gaze back to the screen.

"I'm sure Ryou's father and Marik's siblings are safe," he said, looking only somewhat confident. He knew that at least _one_ of them would find her way to Domino, so he assumed that the other two would be with her when she did. Since Seto was safe and he wasn't presently needed, he retreated back to the dank depths of his soul-room. He had work to do.

The instant that Seth shimmered out of sight, Joey took his place beside Seto on the floor in front of the TV.

"How have you been?" the blond asked quietly as he pulled the VHS tape from its faded card-stock sheath.

"Fine. No concussion, thankfully." Seto's answer was so quiet it was almost inaudible. He couldn't let anyone else know that he'd been to the hospital, because if they knew _that_ he'd gone to the hospital, they would want to know _why_ he'd gone to the hospital and _how_ he'd gotten hurt, which was impossible to do plausibly without telling the truth.

"Have you thought about my offer?" Joey slipped the VHS into the VCR's gaping mouth.

"Yes, but I need more time to think."

"How much longer are you going to think about it?"

"As long as I need to."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's the last chapter of Season One! I thought there was going to be another chapter, but I guess not, so just sit tight and REVIEW while I wrap up the first chapter of Season Two and the prequel I promised you. I suggest that you follow me if you want to find out as soon as those get posted.
> 
> I ask for reviews because I love you people for reading, and I like hearing your opinions and reactions, and because it encourages me to keep going, so while you're waiting for more, tell me what you thought about the end of Season One and what you think is going to happen next!
> 
> How about those convenient newscasters? Am I right? *wink wink*

**Author's Note:**

> Please review with your opinions, thoughts, and predictions for the story! What do you like that I do? What do you not like that I do in my writing? Tell me, and I can make future chapters a bit more to your liking!


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